NEET Decision: Opposition piles up from State Governments

The recent decision of the Supreme Court, while being hailed by many, including the Union health Ministry Shri JP Nadda, the same has seen strong opposition from private medical colleges. While this was quite expected, what was not expected was the response of Various State Governments, who are opposing the said decision and appear to be in a fix with regards to holding their respective exams.

In what appears to be a case of safeguarding the local education needs of a state, different state governments seem to be bent to appeal against the apex court's decision on NEET. It clearly implied that verdict has undermined their power to offer tailor-made medical education admission for the needs of the state.

TAMIL NADU

In case of Tamil Nadu, officials from the state health department in their statement implied that it is a very short notice for students to start preparing for a centralized exam, and is largely unfair for students to compete with CBSE students, who have had a chance to prepare for more than a year. Tamil Nadu has based its further argument on the case that rural students will be discriminated against those, who have headstart after having attended coaching classes.

Moreover, it was also pointed out that NEET interferes on the state subject of education. Admissions to medical colleges under the Tamil Nadu medical university are now based on Class 12 final examination marks, under the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Admission in Professional Courses Act, 2006.

The state also needs a further clarity that MCI regulations strengthened by its directive also rule the state act of these admissions. They however, don't support the dismissal of their act because of new regulations.

MAHARASHTRA

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has also implied in his tweet that this last minute decision will affect a lot of students, and therefore, the state government is planning to file a review petition on the SC verdict. With this decision,students ( who did not applied for the AIPMT) will have only three months to prepare for NEET which is based on a different syllabus (CBSE syllabus) compared to the Maharashtra CET which is based on the Maharashtra Board Syllabus.

DNA reports Over 1.4 lakh students have been reported to have applied for the Maharashtra CET, with no clarity on how many of them have applied for the AIPMT.

KERALA

Kerala government, on the other hand, has already conducted the state medical entrance exams, and will now approach the apex court for exemption from NEET. The said exam had taken place on Wednesday and Thurday

"We are on record as not opposing NEET. But this year we have already conducted the medical entrance exams. The state is of the opinion that we ask for exemption from SC this year as we have already conducted the entrance exams," said health secretary K Ellangovan to

TOI. He added that they will discuss the matter with the law secretary and advocate general and then approach the SC.

Christian medical college managements have decided to go with the state government decision. "We will wait for Kerala government to decide," said Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute secretary Fr Francis Pallikunath.

ANDHRA PRADESH AND TELANGANA

As reported by Medical Dialogues Team earlier, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while welcoming the decision of NEET, said that the deicsion would not have applicability on the respective states and would go ahead with their respective schedules.

Prof T Papi Reddy, chairman, Telangana State Council of Higher Education, has implied clearly in his statement that though they welcome the SC's decision to hold a single entrance exam, the NEET rule does not apply to Telangana and AP, as both are exempted under Article 371 (D). The exemption in other words, allows the state council to safeguard the education rights of the locals. So, as such both the states are exempted from contributing medical seats to 'central pool'. He also expressed that in any case it was too late to consider the ruling by SC on NEET exam. It may be considered for the next academic (2017-18) now.

PTI reports that Andhra Pradesh EAMCET to be held tomorrow as per schedule.