DMK president M.K Stalin on Wednesday urged Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit to give assent to the Bill seeking to implement 7.5% horizontal reservation for NEET-qualified State government school students in medical college admissions.
In a letter to the Governor, he said the government school students could benefit from the reservation this academic year itself, only if the assent for 7.5% horizontal reservation Bill, passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, was given immediately.
He reiterated that the DMK had been demanding the scrapping of NEET, “which acts as a hindrance for rural and urban poor students to pursue their medical studies and to realise their dream of becoming doctors”.
Mr. Stalin pointed out that the Bill was adopted in the Assembly based on the recommendations of Justice Kalaiyarasan to provide the reservation to government school students who had scored qualifying marks in the NEET.
G.O. enough: VCK
Meanwhile, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder Thol. Thirumavalavan too urged the government to pass a G.O. instead of waiting for the Governor to sign off on the Bill.
In a statement, Mr. Thirumavalavan argued that a law needs to be passed only if ‘reservation is going to be introduced for a category’. “The state government is within its powers to make an allocation for sub-reservation within the pre-existing reservation. Not only that, no special legislation has to be passed in these circumstances, and it can be achieved through a Government Order alone,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan recalled how the DMK government in 1977 constituted a high-level committee to look into rural students’ representation in education, and following the recommendations of the committee, implemented 15% reservation for rural students in engineering and medical seats through a G.O. “The subsequent AIADMK government under the leadership of Selvi Jayalalithaa increased the rural students reservation to 25%. That was also done through a G.O.,” he said.
Mr. Thirumavalavan said that though the orders were challenged, and subsequently struck down by the High Court of Madras, the court did not rule at any point that the State government does not have the power to issue G.Os.
“While striking down these orders, the court only held that the State failed to show cause that students from rural areas were at a disadvantaged position compared to their urban counterparts. It also held that the government failed to justify the discrimination,” he said.
