TN: Signature campaign against NEET Exam gathers momentum

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Sports Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Udhayanidhi Stalin on Saturday participated in a 'signature campaign' against the National Entrance-cum-Eligibility Test (NEET) examination here in Chennai.

The son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said that DMK plans to get lakhs of signatures in 50 days against the NEET examination.

"DMK plans to get lakhs of signatures in 50 days against NEET," Stalin Junior said, adding that after getting signatures in this campaign, CM Stalin will write to the President explaining once again our stand against NEET.

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With the number of cases of suicides among NEET aspirants rising, the Tamil Nadu government has been demanding to exempt the examination from the state.

During the signature campaign, Udhyanidhi said, "So far 22 lives have been lost due to NEET. Not only in Tamil Nadu, (but) in India (cases of) suicides are continuing. We have to put a full stop to this. So only (for this) we have started this signature campaign."

The exemption of NEET from the state has been a long pending demand of Tamil Nadu.

The state's chief minister Stalin had earlier written to the Chief Ministers' of 12 states seeking the shifting of education to the State list from the current concurrent list in order to bring an end to the NEET examination.

In February last year, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted the anti-NEET bill for the second time after the Governor returned it earlier.

Moreover, later, the state Governor RN Ravi referred the bill to the President for approval.