Amid the ongoing debate over the need to conduct the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) exams for medical, dental courses at the undergraduate level, the Tamil Nadu Health Minister has written to the Union Health Minister seeking the cancellation of the exam. This comes at a time when Tamil Nadu is barely 3,000 cases short of the four lakh-mark, in terms of the total recorded COVID-19 cases. The growing chorus against the conduct of the NEET exam is primarily owing to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic which has affected over 3 million people and claimed 60,000 lives across India. Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijayabaskar has written to the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan emphasising the need to cancel the NEET exam and allow Tamil Nadu to provide medical admissions on the basis of marks secured in the 12th-grade board examinations. This permission is being sought on the grounds that 12th-grade exams have been completed and results have been declared across Tamil Nadu.

Source: dna August 26, 2020 17:03 UTC