DASE flays govt on NEET exemption plea

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday filed a writ petition challenging the provisions of two central legislations mandating NEET against the amendments made in 2017 and 2018 to the Indian Medical Council Act and the Dental Council Act. However, the association said that the writ petition would not be of any help because the Centre had earlier declined the request by the State government to exempt students from appearing in NEET because it applies to all the States.

“The State government should have sought exemption for NEET and NEXT last year itself. By doing this now, the government is only trying to make the people believe that they made efforts to get exemption from these Acts. NEET is merely becoming a part of the manifesto of the political parties but the State has not made any attempts to get exemption from NEET,” said Dr G R Ravindranath, general secretary, Doctor’s Association for Social Equality. As per the rules of Medical Council of India and Dental Council of India, the State could gain exemption before the amendments were made. “Even Puducherry had supported the same but the State had not even tried to ask for exemption even when National Medical Commission came into existence,” he added.