A day after Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured support for Tamil Nadu’s bid to get exemption from NEET-based admissions to undergraduate medical degree programmes, an official team led by State Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan submitted a draft ordinance to the Centre to facilitate the same on Monday.
The Union Home Ministry said that it was examining the draft ordinance proposed by the Tamil Nadu government seeking one-time exemption to admit MBSS/BDS aspirants based on their Plus Two scores for seats in government medical colleges and government quota seats in private colleges for this year alone.
Mr. Radhakrishnan told reporters in New Delhi that he was hopeful that the ordinance would be cleared soon.
“We have submitted the draft of the ordinance to the Home Ministry. As Ministers of State Nirmala Sitharaman and Pon. Radhakrishnan said yesterday [Sunday] that the Centre would clear the ordinance… we are hoping it would be cleared soon. The drafts have been sent to concerned Ministries — Law and Health for their opinion,” he said.
The draft Indian Medical Council (Tamil Nadu Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, said: “Replacing the present system of admissions in State government seats based on marks secured in NEET examinations from 2017-18 is a very emotive issue. There is unanimity among all political parties of the State that the existing policy of admissions to the Medical and Dental colleges, which has protected the interests of poor students from rural areas and also ensured that medical personnel are available in all remote parts of the State, should not be replaced without addressing the concerns of the student community...”
The Home Ministry will have to obtain the instructions of the President for the ordinance to be promulgated by the Governor before August 30. “In Tamil Nadu, in academic year 2016-17, about 4.2 lakh students studied biology as one of their subjects in Class XII in State board schools… of the over 88,431 students who appeared for NEET in TN, at least 95% are from the State board, while only 5% are from CBSE and other Boards. Any change of syllabus cannot be abrupt, but has to be built up from base classes. Just because the syllabus was available in NEET guidelines, a student from another Board could need considerable time to get adequately equipped. This would also require special coaching which poor and rural students can ill afford and that was the logic for abolishing entrance examinations for professional courses in TN in 2006,” the ordinance said.
