NEET: TN submits Ordinance copy to Centre, will file case if exempted, says Nalini Chidambaram

The confusion among medical aspirants in Tamil Nadu is expected to finally come to an end temporarily as the State government today submitted the ordinance for the approval of the Centre seeking exemption from NEET.

Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan has submitted the ordinance. The Centre has asked for more supportive documents and directed the State government to change the two years exemption to one year.   Following this, Mr  Radhakrishnan said that the required documents will be sumbitted within half-an-hour and the same was done.

Sources said that if this ordinance is accepted by the Centre, then the medical aspirants from the State will be admitted based on their 12th standard marks this year.

The move was made after Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday said the Centre will cooperate with Tamilnadu if it brings an ordinance seeking exemption from NEET for government colleges for one year.

Responding to her remarks, State Health Minister C Vijayabaskar said an ordinance in this regard would be submitted to the Centre this morning.

The development comes after  Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, State Ministers and Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai had multiple meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other central Ministers over NEET.

Tamil Nadu, which had initially sought permanent exemption from NEET by passing two Bills in the Assembly, later made efforts to be out of its ambit for at least a year or two.

State School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan said  in  Coimbatore yesterday that the government wanted total exemption from NEET for the benefit of students, particularly from rural areas. However, efforts were on to prepare students for common tests in future, he said.

Ms Sitharaman said although students who had qualified in NEET included those from the state board and added students from Rural Tamil Nadu were largely out of it.

'The Centre is ready to cooperate in case the Tamil Nadu government comes up with an ordinance seeking exemption from NEET for government colleges,' she said, adding the exemption was only for a year.

Barring government colleges, NEET has already been implemented for other institutes, the Union minister said.

Mr Vijayabaskar said care was being taken to ensure that the proposed move does not face any legal hurdles and the government was confident of completing the admission process ahead of the month-end deadline.

In future, students would be well-prepared for NEET and the syllabus too would be oriented likewise, he added.

Meanwhile, Ms  Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that she will be moving to the Supreme Court if Tamil Nadu is exempted from NEET and added that the ordinance submitted today is illegal.

'The State government is making false statements stating that the exemption is sought for the benefit of the rural students, which is not true,' she added.

Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan said that he is positive about Tamil Nadu being exempted from NEET this year.

He also said that Ms  Nalini Chidambaram's statement of filing a case if the state is exempted is a political drama.