TN government continues to oppose NEET: Health minister

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Sunday said that the state government is continuing its opposition to National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET).

Talking to media persons, the minister said that he and the state had given a new representation to the Union Health Minister to do away with NEET.

The minister said that during the state government has given replies to the Union Ministry for Home affairs on the clarifications they asked regarding the petition of the state government on NEET exemption.

Ma Subramanian said that he was expecting the Union health ministry to call him and the State Health Secretary to New Delhi soon to communicate on a final decision regarding NEET.

He also said that it was not only Tamil Nadu but states like Uttarkhand were also opposed to NEET and NeXT. The minister said that several students have also raised their objection to NEET.

The minister said that there 6326 MBBS seats in medical colleges of Tamil Nadu including government and private medical colleges. He said that there would be 1768 seats for BDS courses in the state.

It may be noted that there were 6067 MBBS seats and 1380 BDS seats in Tamil Nadu last year. The number of seats under the 7.5 % quota for government school students in the seat is 473 for MBBS and 133 seats for BDS this year.

In Tamil Nadu, there are 36 government medical colleges, one ESI medical college, 21 self-finance medical colleges, and 13 deemed medical colleges in the state.