Chennai, Jun 30 (IANS): Leader of Opposition in Tamil Nadu Assembly K. Palaniswami on Wednesday charged the ruling DMK with making "false promises" to the electorate that the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) would be cancelled, though knowing that his AIADMK government had to conduct the examinations on the basis of the Supreme Court order.

Interacting with reporters at the party headquarters here, he said that the DMK, after coming to power, has now constituted a committee "to fool the gullible public" and that this was just a "drama" that the ruling party was playing without any real intention of scrapping the examination.

The former Chief Minister said that his government was forced to conduct the NEET examination owing to the Supreme Court order. He said that despite knowing fully well that the exam was conducted on the basis of the apex court's order, then opposition leader M.K. Stalin and the DMK campaigned across the state that they would abolish the exam once they come to power, and questioned why the party was not doing it right now.

He said that the Madras High Court had now raised several questions to the present government as to whether any permission was obtained from the Supreme Court before constituting a committee headed by Justice A.K. Rajan to study the impact of NEET on medical admissions.

He called upon the government to clarify whether the NEET would be held or not as the parents and students are confused over this.

The former Chief Minister also dismissed the claims of state Medical and Family Welfare Minister Ma Subramanian's claim that 7.5 per cent horizontal reservation to students of government schools was given for NEET admissions on the basis of recommendations from then opposition leader Stalin.

He said that his government had sanctioned the reservation for government students knowing fully well the difficulties faced by these students and had enacted a law without receiving any recommendations or requests from anyone including even students or parents.