Union Minister for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman has emerged as a key go-to person between the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre over the NEET (National Eligibility and Entrance Test) issue. Top sources in the government confirmed that it was the Minister’s efforts, along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and Central Minister Pon Radhakrishnan, that resulted in the ordinance by the State government getting a hearing in New Delhi.
“Through out the Monsoon Session of Parliament, there were hectic parleys between the State government and the Centre over a reprieve for Tamil Nadu on the NEET issue. The State government presented figures that showed that the intake of students in private medical colleges and post graduate courses in medical schools in the State this year showed that students in urban areas and those with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schooling were over represented and rural students with State Board Matriculation getting left out,” said a senior government source.
“Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, M. Thambidurai, in fact met with the Minister almost everyday of the session, with the deadline for ‘doing something’ to alleviate the problems of the rural students being August 30,” added the source.
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Meeting with PM
Both Ms. Sitharaman and Mr. Radhakrishnan had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last week of the monsoon session to discuss the matter with him. “Prime Minister Modi was sympathetic but also cautioned that the legal position of the Centre should not be compromised in the law courts,” said the source.
The State government, in the last two meetings that Chief Minister E.K. Palaniswami held with Prime Minister Modi (the last on August 11), had assured the Centre that the State had implemented NEET in the admissions to private medical colleges and post-graduate courses, but that admission to government medical colleges and to fill the government quota in private colleges (where fees were reasonable) required some more time to redress the rural-urban divide that was emerging in student intake.
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