Current affairs

MK Stalin's NEET outreach: DMK takes a big step by meeting TN's neighbour Pinarayi Vijayan!

By alagu, 06 October, 2021
MK Stalin, Pinarayi Vijayan, NEET, Tamilnadu

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has been strengthening his battle to repeal the NEET as he has been unfolding a crucial outreach of reaching out to a dozen Chief Ministers, appealing them to join him in his fight against the contentious National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test, a single-window examination for pursuing medical studies.

As Tamil Nadu has been voicing against the national exam and its hasty introduction with recording several NEET-related suicides, the five-months-old DMK government has been taking measures to ban the exam in the state. In the recently-held assembly session, the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a bill to ban the NEET and following the passage, the bill was then moved to the Governor. As the first step towards repealing the NEET, the government has formed a committee under retired judge Justice AK Rajan to study the impact of the exam on the backward students.

The committee had also recommended replacing the exam and passing the act to ban it as the NEET has adversely impacted the rural and backward students in pursuing medical studies. On Monday, MK Stalin has written to 12 Chief Ministers and sought their support to repeal the NEET. In his letter to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, and Goa, MK Stalin has sought his counterparts to raise a collective demand to reclaim states' rights over education as stated in the constitution and oppose NEET. 

Stalin has also affirmed that the DMK MPs will meet these 12 Chief Ministers in person to convey Tamil Nadu's fight against the national exam and its flaws and how it had impacted the students from backward communities. MK Stalin has attached the report disclosed by the AK Rajan committee in his letter to the Chief Ministers as the committee has studied the impact of NEET on students from underprivileged and socially backward backgrounds.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has requested the 12 Chief Ministers to study the documents and extend their support in this matter towards ensuring that the students of the respective states, hailing from rural areas and marginalized sections of the society won't face any obstacles in securing admissions to pursue medical studies. 

MK Stalin wrote, "I request you to kindly go through the documents and extend your support in this regard to ensure that the students of our respective states, hailing from rural areas and marginalized sections of the society are not put to hardship in obtaining admissions to higher educational institutions. We need to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of state governments' in administering the education sector, as envisaged in our constitution. I look forward to your cooperation in this crucial issue." 

It was said that the DMK MPs are instructed to hand over the translated copy of the AK Rajan report in person to these 12 Chief Ministers and brief them about the efforts taken by the Tamil Nadu government towards repealing the NEET. Further to this, on Wednesday, a delegation of DMK leaders had met Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram and handed over Stalin's letter and sought support from the neighbouring state to fight against the NEET. 

According to reports, the DMK delegation was led by DMK Rajya Sabha MP TKS Elangovan and the latter had given a copy of a letter written by Chief Minister MK Stalin to Pinarayi Vijayan to oppose the test and to restore the primacy of states in education. Tenkasi Lok Sabha MP Dhanush Kumar and Kerala state DMK organizer Murugesan had accompanied Elangovan during the meet with Pinarayi Vijayan. A party release has said that the DMK MP had also tabled a copy of the report of the AK Rajan committee to the Kerala Chief Minister.

 

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