New Delhi: The Karnataka legislative assembly on Thursday (July 25) has adopted a resolution demanding the abolition of the National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) and exemption for the state from the exam.
The resolution, passed amidst protests from Opposition parties, highlights the severe impact of NEET on medical education opportunities for poor children from rural areas, The Hindu reported.
Karnataka medical education minister Sharan Prakash Patil stated that NEET makes the school education system ineffective and takes away the rights of the state government to admit students in state-run medical colleges.
“The NEET examination system is severely affecting the medical education opportunities of poor children from rural area,” Prakash was quoted as saying by TH.
He added: “NEET not only makes the school education system ineffective, but also takes away the rights of the State Government to admit students in State Government managed medical colleges. Hence, it is requested that this system be abolished.”
The resolution urges the central government to allow admission in medical colleges based on the Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted by the state government and cancel the NEET system due to nationwide malpractices.
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The assembly also demanded essential amendments in the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, to address concerns related to NEET.
“The House demands the Centre to exempt Karnataka from this exam, and allow admission in medical colleges to students on the basis of the Common Entrance Test conducted by the State Government and cancel the NEET system in view of the malpractices taking place nationwide, and make essential amendments in the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 (Central Act 30 of 2019),” the resolution mentioned.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) members protested the resolution and the Leader of Opposition R. Ashok demanded a special session to discuss the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal and conduct of NEET, as per the report.
“When NEET came, we welcomed it thinking it’d be transparent and students will not have to take multiple exams,” Patil told media persons, as per a Deccan Herald report, adding, “But now, we have lost faith in NEET after the Union government demonstrated its inability to conduct the exam in a transparent manner, which put the future of 24 lakh students in panic.”
Further, he underlined that since the Centre has “lost the competence to conduct NEET” they should “give up gracefully”.
“The South Indian states have an unanimous opinion. The Tamil Nadu Assembly has already taken a stand. There’s information that Telangana too will do it,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal assembly has also passed a resolution on Wednesday (July 24) to scrap NEET and bring in its place a new entrance test for medical aspirants.