Panel on NEET impact to table report in a month

The government on Thursday appointed members for Justice AK Rajan (retired) led high-level Committee to study the impact of NEET on socially backward students in the state. The committee has been given a month to review the statistics and make necessary recommendations to the government to protect the interest of backward students in the state.

The committee chaired by retired judge AK Rajan would have as its members Dr GR Ravindranath of DASE (Doctors Association for Social Equality), Dr Jawahar Nesan, principal secretaries of the state health and school education departments and secretary of law department and officer on special duty for health and family welfare and director of medical education. Additional director of Medical Education Movement would be member cum secretary/coordinator of the committee, which would study if socially backward students of the state were affected by NEET, and if they were affected, it would recommend alternative medical admission methods for NEET.

The nine-member committee has also been advised to recommend the probabilities and legalities involved in implementing the alternative admission methods to the state government.

Chief Minister MK Stalin, who announced the formation of the committee over a week ago, passed orders on Thursday for appointing the members.

The committee is seen as the first step ahead in the ruling DMK fulfilling its poll promise of scrapping NEET, which was one of the major talking points during the Assembly election campaign. An official statement issued in this regard by the state government said that Tamil Nadu government would take further action (on the issue) after studying the recommendations of the committee.

Dr GR Ravindranath of DASE, Dr Jawahar Nesan, principal secretaries of state health and school education depts and secretary of law and officer on special duty for health and family welfare and director of medical education are members