In the wake of the suicides of a student Jegadeeswaran, who failed to clear NEET, and his father Selvasekar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has written to President Droupadi Murmu, demanding her assent to the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021. The Bill seeks exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu. In the letter, Chief Minsiter MK Stalin points out that the delay in granting assent to the bill has caused immense anxiety and stress in the minds of people and have led to ‘sad incidents of suicides’.
Stalin also writes in his letter that, “The Government of Tamil Nadu has been consistently opposing National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical courses, considering the fact the NEET based selection process favours urban students and those who can afford costly coaching classes and hence is inherently against the poor and underprivileged.”
Further, referring to the suicides, the Chief Minister added that due to the stress of NEET, there have been various sad incidents of students (or their parents) committing suicides, depressed by their failure to get an admission through NEET. Even recently, a student from Chrompet in Chennai and his father committed suicide due to the stress of the student’s failure in NEET. With this, the toll of students who have committed suicide due to NEET has increased to 16 in our State. These tragedies could have been definitely avoided if our bill for exemption from NEET had been given assent and the medical admissions done on the basis of +2 marks.”
In this regard, Stalin has demanded that the President grant her assent to the NEET exemption bill as it is the outcome of the Legislative consensus and adding that the bill is the collective will of the people of Tamil Nadu. “Each day of delay in its implementation costs not only valuable medical seats to deserving students but invaluable human lives to our society. I, therefore, solicit your immediate intervention in the matter and urge you to accord assent at the earliest to the above Bill passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly,” the Chief Minister added.
On Saturday afternoon, August 12, S Jegadeeswaran took his own life after failing to clear the national eligibility test. On Monday, unable to bear the loss of his son, Selvasekar took his own life. Selvasekar was reportedly working as a photographer in Chennai’s Chrompet neighbourhood. Before his death, Selvasekar speaking to the media about the death of his son had highlighted the DMK’s poll promise of banning NEET in the state if the party came to power.
READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE LETTER HERE:
I wish to draw your kind attention to the unfortunate consequences due to the delay in the grant of assent to the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021 and urge you to provide the assent immediately. The Government of Tamil Nadu has been consistently opposing National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical courses, considering the fact the NEET based selection process favours urban students and those who can afford costly coaching classes and hence is inherently against the poor and underprivileged. It has been our considered view that the selection process should only be through the +2 marks, the outcome of school education rather than a separate entrance exam which is an unwanted additional stress on students.
In this regard, a Committee under the Chairmanship of Justice Thiru. A.K. Rajan, former High Court Judge, was constituted to study the issue. The above Committee undertook a detailed study on the NEET based admission process and its adverse impact on the poor and rural students and submitted its recommendations. Based on this report and various discussions, the ‘Tamil Nadu Admission to Under Graduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021’ (L.A Bill No.43 of 2021) was passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly Legislative Assembly on 13.09.2021 and sent to Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu on 18.09.2021. Since it was returned by the Hon’ble Governor after five months of delay, it was reintroduced in the Assembly on 08.02.2022 and was passed again after reconsideration and sent again to the Hon’ble Governor for reserving the same to Hon’ble President of India. The Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu has forwarded the Bill to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and is pending for assent.
In the process for providing assent to our Bill, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had forwarded the comments of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (on 21.06.2022), Department of Higher Education, MoE (26.08.2022 and 15.05.2023) and Ministry of Ayush (13.01.2023) on the Bill and sought our clarifications on the comments. We had also provided all the details expeditiously. But our Bill has not been provided assent till now and the students have been forced to undergo the NEET based admission process. This has caused immense anxiety and stress in the minds of the students and parents. As a result, there have been various sad incidents of students (or their parents) committing suicides, depressed by their failure to get an admission through NEET. Even recently, a student from Chrompet in Chennai and his father committed suicide due to the stress of the student’s failure in NEET. With this, the toll of students who have committed suicide due to NEET has increased to 16 in our State. These tragedies could have been definitely avoided if our bill for exemption from NEET had been given assent and the medical admissions done on the basis of +2 marks.
The NEET Exemption Bill passed by our Government is the outcome of Legislative consensus, stemming from the collective will of the people of Tamil Nadu. Each day of delay in its implementation costs not only valuable medical seats to deserving students but invaluable human lives to our society. I, therefore, solicit your immediate intervention in the matter and urge you to accord assent at the earliest to the above Bill passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.