CHENNAI ERUPTS OVER SUICIDE
Demanding justice for the 17-year-old Dalit medical aspirant, political parties, students’ bodies and pro-Tamil outfits on Saturday hit the streets of Chennai on Saturday.
Anticipating a massive protest over the death of a bright medical aspirant, Anitha, by sections of youth that is angry over the failure of the state and central governments in getting exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu, the police detained hundreds of youngsters as preventive measure.
Scores of politicians paid homage on Saturday to Anitha, a Dalit girl from the backward Ariyalur district who ended her life on Friday dejected over not being able to join MBBS course despite scoring 1,176 marks out of 1,200.
Anitha girl scored only 86 marks in NEET and had impleaded herself in a case challenging the NEET in the Supreme Court. She had no access to coaching centre and her father, a single parent, couldn’t afford to send her for coaching in the cities considering that he earned only daily wage as a worker in the organised sector.
Dozens of youngsters who attempted to gherao chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami in Chennai were detained. Another group of students attempted to stage a protest against senior advocate Nalini Chidambaram, wife of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram, as she had appeared on behalf of the pro-NEET students in the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court.
Police have heightened vigil across Tamil Nadu amidst reports that thousands of youth could converge at the Marina beach for an uprising similar to what the state witnessed during the demand to revoke a ban on Jallikattu in January this year.