“I will be the last man to give clearance [to the NEET exemption Bill], never ever! I do not want my children to feel intellectually disabled,” Ravi told Ammassiyappan Ramaswamy, the father of a NEET rank-holder, who urged the Governor to clear the Bill.
During an event to felicitate Tamil Nadu’s NEET rank-holders, Governor R N Ravi told a parent of one of them that he would “never, ever” clear the state government’s Bill seeking to exempt the state from the ambit of the centralised medical entrance exam.
“I will be the last man to give clearance [to the NEET exemption Bill], never ever! I do not want my children to feel intellectually disabled,” Ravi told Ammassiyappan Ramaswamy, the father of a NEET rank-holder, who urged the Governor to clear the Bill.
In an impassioned debate with the Governor, Ramaswamy said “clearing NEET is all about spending on coaching centres”. He said his daughter did well in NEET only after extensive coaching, and said that parents faced many hardships and major expenses to send their children to coaching centres.
“You said our standards are very high and our medical system is very good. But all of these were achieved without NEET,” the parent told Ravi on the sidelines of the event held at Raj Bhavan on Saturday.
Ravi, however, said: “What we have achieved without NEET is no longer sufficient. Sit down.”
Ramaswamy, who said he works at the Salem Steel Plant, continued the debate, pointing out that his arguments were based on his family’s experience of spending Rs 4 lakh annually for coaching for the last four years.
“Should a student study this hard to clear a NEET exam? One student said he studied 15 hours…” he said.
Unyielding, Governor Ravi repeated his answer: “I am saying this very proudly, I will never give clearance to NEET [exemption Bill]. It is very clear.”
The exchange continued until Raj Bhavan staff were seen asking Ramaswamy to return the microphone.
Governor Ravi has been a focal point of several areas of conflict between the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre. Last April, his comments about clearing Bills had sparked a major controversy. At the time, Ravi had said at an event in Raj Bhavan for aspiring civil servants that the Governor “withholding” a Bill meant that the Bill was dead.
“It is the use of more decent language, instead of the word ‘reject’. When you say ‘withhold’, the Bill is dead,” he had said.
Source: The Indian Express