DMK, AIADMK spar over NEET introduction in TN

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK and AIADMK on Wednesday sparred in the State Assembly over the introduction of NEET.

Senior AIADMK MLA KP Munusamy set the tone for the heated exchange between the treasury benches and the opposition when he, participated in the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address in the State Assembly, wondered what has become of the trick the DMK claimed to have in its poll manifesto to secure exemption for the State from the NEET.

Responding to his sarcastic jab, State Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy said that it was their late leader M Karunanidhi who had abolished the common entrance test for professional education in 2009.

Intervening during the debate, Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami, said that NEET was introduced during the Congress regime in which the DMK was a constituent party. Rushing to the defense of his cabinet colleague, Chief Minister MK Stalin conceded that it was proposed in the Congress-led UPA regime and said the DMK had opposed NEET even while remaining in the alliance and his party also prevented the implementation of NEET during its tenure. Adding that NEET was not enforced in TN even till former J Jayalalithaa's tenure, the CM sought to know in what regime was it implemented.

Attributing the implementation of NEET to the Supreme Court verdict, Palaniswami asked as to what could a State government do.

Reiterating that the DMK never allowed the implementation of NEET, an unrelenting Stalin questioned why did he (EPS) not prevent NEET. Not convinced with EPS' argument that they (AIADMK) were also opposed to NEET, Health Minister Ma Subramanian said that the previous AIADMK regime had even withheld the rejection of the NEET exemption bill by the President for two years and deliberately fed wrong information to the House.

While the LoP blamed the DMK and Congress for introducing NEET in TN, the chief minister wrapped up the debate by arguing that NEET was proposed by the Congress led union government and resisted by the DMK, but it was implemented in Tamil Nadu only during the AIADMK regime when its ally BJP was in power at the Centre