The DMK and the Congress on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Assembly, saying the reply of Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar to a query on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was not satisfactory.
Accusing the Minister of providing wrong information on the DMK’s role in allowing NEET, Mr. Stalin said the DMK never allowed NEET while in power. “All I wanted to ask was what happened to the two Bills seeking exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET. Irrespective of whether they reached the Presidential palace or not, they have become a subject of ridicule,” he said, while participating in a special calling attention motion in the House.
Mr. Stalin said a lot of students were affected by wrong translation of questions in the NEET paper, and that the issue was brought to the Centre’s attention to seek grace marks for the affected students. “But the Centre did not take it seriously, and this proved its stepmotherly attitude towards the Tamil language,” he said, and drew attention to the suicides of medical aspirants Anitha and Pradeepa.
Pointing out that not only Tamil Nadu, but all southern States had paid a heavy price due to NEET, Mr. Stalin said only eight students from the southern States could make it to the top 50 list.
“Of the 1,14,609 students who wrote the examination, only 45,336 cleared it. The government should bring pressure [to bear] on the Centre to get the President’s nod for the two Bills [seeking exemption from NEET] that were adopted in the Assembly,” he said.
Later, the DMK leader handed over ₹2 lakh to the family of Pradeepa in Villupuram.
