Former High Court Judge D. Hariparanthaman on Saturday took strong objection to the inordinate delay in giving the Presidential assent for the NEET Bill enacted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
Presiding over a seminar on the impact of National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) over the future of Tamil Nadu students, organised by the Tamil Nadu Educationalists Forum at St. Joseph’s College here, Justice Hariparanthaman said that the Bill, seeking exemption for Tamil Nadu students from the NEET, was unanimously passed in the State Assembly in the last week of January. Soon after the passage of the Bill, it was sent to the Centre for Presidential assent but till date there has been no response, he said.
Stating that the NEET was against the interest of Tamil Nadu students aspiring for MBBS admission, he said that the test was based on Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). But, 98 percent of Tamil Nadu students had studied on Samacheer Kalvi syllabus. If a question was asked out of syllabus in public examinations, expert committee would be constituted to study the issue so as to award marks to the students. In such a scenario, it was not acceptable to compel the Tamil Nadu students to write NEET examination, which would be based on CBSE syllabus. Justice Hariparanthaman said that aspiring students had been left in the lurch due to the inaction of the Centre on NEET Bill. Several coaching centres had sprung up to cash in on the uncertain situation. They are collecting an average of ₹1.5 lakh per student, he charged.
Vigila Sathyanand, Member of Parliament, AIADMK, K. M. Kader Mohideen, national president, Indian Union Muslim League, Rev. Fr. John Britto, Rector, St. Joseph’s College, spoke.
