Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to expedite the Presidential assent for the two NEET Bills passed by the State Assembly.
In a four-page letter, Mr. Palaniswami pointed out that it was only based on the assurances given by the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare to the Chief Minister — that “NEET would not interfere with the reservation policy of individual States,” and that “It is open to the State government to provide preferential marks to students who come from rural/hilly/tribal areas as is done in case of admission to PG courses,” — that Tamil Nadu issued its prospectus for postgraduate medical and dental courses.
It also decided to continue the existing policy of reserving 50% of State quota of government seats for the candidates in government service with the preferential marking system followed in earlier years.
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Delineating how the State government computed the marks awarded under its preferential marking system, he said a piquant situation had arisen as the Madras HC had directed the State to implement a regulation that the Medical Council of India had added as an amendment in 2012 but had not been implemented even for all-India quota seats. “The direction to follow MCI postgraduate regulationsis preventing the State government from implementing its admission policy for State quota seats in the postgraduate courses based on NEET-PG,” he said.
He added that the permanent solution to ensure continuance of the present system of admission to PG courses in medicine and dentistry with statutory backing is to obtain the presidential assent at the earliest to the two Bills — the Tamil Nadu Admissions to Post Graduate Courses in Medicine and Dentistry Bill, 2017 and the Tamil Nadu Admissions to MBBS and BDS Courses Bill, 2017 — unanimously passed by the T.N. Assembly.