President Pranab signs ordinance on NEET

As the President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test ordinance before his visit to China visit, the ground was prepared for exempting State government medical colleges from the Supreme Court-mandated single all-India entrance exam for a year for the students appearing in the medical entrance examination.

The first phase of NEET was conducted on May 1 while the second phase is scheduled to be held on July 24.

Health Minister J.P. Nadda while talking to the media said, “all postgraduate (PG) admissions will be done through NEET this year. The ordinance had given a “firm and statutory” support to the common entrance test.”

“The main aim the ordinance is to provide a firm statutory status to the concept of Uniform Entrance Examination for all UG and PG admissions and also to provide a relaxation to the State governments in relation to UG admissions for this year [2016-17] in view of their difficulties,” he added further.

For undergraduate (UG) courses, an exemption has been made for ‘State quota’ seats in government medical colleges and private institutions for this academic session.

The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, and The Dentists (Amendment) Ordinance, 2016, are being promulgated to amend the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and Dentists Act, 1948, respectively to ensure for a uniform entrance examination for UG and PG courses, with a stipulation that for the 2016-17 academic session, the States can opt to conduct their own examinations for UG courses.

The State government seats — both in government and private medical colleges — will be exempt from the purview of NEET regulations if the State government so opts. The exemption is only for this academic session,” said Mr. Nadda.

• The states that have opted NEET from this year are - Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Bihar, and Chandigarh will admit students under NEET.
• Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which do not conduct an entrance examination for medical and dental colleges, will continue to admit students on the basis of marks obtained in Class XII examinations this year.
• All management quota seats shall be filled by the private colleges and deemed universities through the NEET examination only.

The health minister also said that the ordinance was required because the Supreme Court was on vacation and both Houses of Parliament had adjourned sine die on May 13. The ordinance came after pressure from several State governments, which had opposed NEET on several grounds like- the grounds of disparity of syllabus and differences in regional languages to name a few.