Tamil Nadu: CM Stalin's letter to President Murmu seeking assent for anti-NEET bill at earliest

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday urged President Droupadi Murmu to give assent to the state’s anti-NEET bill, taking up the matter with her during her visit in Chennai. The President was in Chennai to participate in the convocation of Indian Maritime University. The CM handed over a letter to the President at the airport in this connection, an official release said. The Tamil Nadu Admission to Under Graduate Medical Degree Courses Bill, 2021, originally passed in September that year by the state Assembly, was returned by Governor RN Ravi later. It was reintroduced and adopted by the Assembly in February 2022 and sent again to the Governor for ‘reserving’ the same to Presidential assent, Stalin said in the letter to Murmu. The Governor has now forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry. “All the clarifications sought on the Bill by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs based on the comments of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Higher Education, MoE and Ministry of Ayush have been provided expeditiously. Since there had been no progress after our replies, in my letter dated August 14, 2023, I had highlighted the various adverse impacts due to this delay like the lost opportunities for the underprivileged students and many student suicides and had urged you to grant the assent without any further delay,” Stalin said in his communication to the President. The latest queries from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have also been replied to. “But unfortunately, the assent to our Bill has not been provided till now. In this scenario, I once again wish to reiterate that the inordinate delay in granting assent to our Bill has deprived medical admissions for many deserving students who could not afford costly coaching facilities and has effectively stalled the intent of the broad legislative, political and social consensus in Tamil Nadu.” “I, therefore, solicit your kind and immediate intervention in this sensitive issue and urge you to accord the assent to the above Bill at the earliest,” he added.