Weeks after the special committee headed by retired Justice AK Rajan had disclosed its report to Chief Minister MK Stalin over its findings of how the NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) has impacted students in the state and its weaker reception, the Tamil Nadu government has on Thursday said that a Committee of Secretaries has suggested adopting a law to give exemption to the students in the state from appearing for the NEET in pursuing a medical seat.

On Thursday, moving the demands for grants for Health and Family Welfare Department, Health Minister Ma Subramanian has said that the Committee of Secretaries headed by Chief Secretary Irai Anbu was formed to suggest measures to implement the recommendation made by the AK Rajan committee. The Minister further stated that the Committee of Secretaries has suggested that an Act can be promulgated to repeal the NEET and to provide medical admissions based on marks the students have obtained in the state's qualifying examination. 

While the Committee of Secretaries was headed by the Chief Secretary, the committee has consisted of the secretaries of health, school, higher education, and law and they had unanimously suggested the abrogation of the NEET in the state after the AK Rajan committee has outlined the ordeals faced by the rural students in pursuing the national exam to secure a medical seat. The committee has said that these students had studied in government schools in Tamil medium of instruction. It also has highlighted that nearly 90% of the respondents were against the NEET. Based on the findings, the Chief Minister had earlier said that the government will look into the recommendations from the committee. 

The AK Rajan committee has submitted its report on July 14 and weeks after the submission, the government has now announced to promulgate an Act to repeal NEET. The health minister said that the act will ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated against admission to medical studies. He reiterated that the DMK-led state government has been consistently opposing NEET for admission to medical courses. The reports say that the fresh bill will be introduced either on Monday or Tuesday. However, the state can less likely revoke the NEET this year as the Union government has already issued a notification that the exams will be held on September 11 this year. 

It must be noted that the DMK's trajectory towards repeal the NEET won't be lenient as it will be levied with a Himalayan task of acquiring the consent for repealing the national exam from the President. Unless carefully moved, it is less likely that the bill against the NEET will hold more weight as the Supreme Court had already upheld the constitutional validity of uniform entrance examination both at the UG and PG level. The bill can be passed in the state assembly given a clear majority for DMK. However, it must win the floors of the Union government as it enjoys the powers concerning the determination of standards of higher education.

As Tamil Nadu has taken a major step against the NEET by planning to promulgate an Act, the Stalin government has to clear the ordeals posed by Delhi. Amid these challenges, the DMK regime has been asserting that the NEET will be repealed in the state and during the 2021 assembly polls, the DMK had promised to abolish the NEET as several students from economically weaker sections have been facing more hardships to qualify for the exam and the state had also witnessed several students committing suicide due to NEET. 

On Thursday, the state assembly had seen heated debates over the NEET and ADMK MLA Govindasamy said he was wondering whether the DMK government is not willing to praise and give credit to the then Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami for passing the 7.5% NEET quota bill for the government school students. Responding to his statement, Health Minister Ma Subramanian has said that though the NEET was introduced by the UPA regime at the Centre, former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had strongly opposed it and the first NEET exam in the state was taken place in the previous ADMK regime.