Chennai, Feb 8 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday passed the anti-NEET Bill moved by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. While the opposition AIADMK supported the Bill, the BJP legislators staged a walkout from the Assembly.

The Bill was for seeking exemption from NEET for the state of Tamil Nadu for the second time. The Bill will be sent to the Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi immediately for forwarding it to the President of India.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly had earlier passed a similar Bill on September 13, 2021, but the Governor did not take any action on the Bill for 142 days. Later he resent the Bill back to the Tamil Nadu government.

Stalin moved the Bill and expressed confidence that the Governor would forward it to the President of India for consent with immediate effect.

While the DMK took exception to the action of Governor R. N. Ravi in not forwarding the earlier Bill to the President for his consent and returned it after keeping it for 142 days. The AIADMK supported the Bill and the BJPA walked out of the Assembly when the Bill was moved.

The Speaker of Tamil Nadu Assembly, M. Appavu read out the objections raised by the Governor while returning the Bill and the state health Minister Ma Subramanian denied the objections one by one.

The state health minister also said that the Justice (Rtd) A.K. Rajan committee, which was constituted to study the impact of NEET in medical admissions, had gone into every aspect of the issue. The health minister also said in the Assembly that the Justice (Rtd) A.K. Rajan committee had studied every aspect of the issue and had submitted its reports and recommendations to the government after eliciting the views of the people of the state.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin took strong exception to the Governor returning the Bill back to the government and said that the Governor had failed to discharge his constitutional responsibilities by returning the NEET Bill.

MMK leader M.H. Jawahirullah said Stalin should lead a movement to abolish the post of Governor.