TN govt to introduce Bill to abolish CET

Chennai, Nov 13 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu Government will introduce a Bill in the coming winter session of the Assembly to abolish Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to professional courses, based on the recommendations of the Anandakrishnan Committee.

The expert panel, constituted by the State Government to examine the modalities of abolishing CET, submitted its report to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at Secretariat here today.

An official release said the mode of implementing the panel's recommendations would be discussed in a cabinet meeting and necessarly Bill would be introduced in the Assembly session, scheduled to begin on December four.

The DMK Government, after assuming power in June last, constituted the committee of educational experts, chaired by former Anna University Vice Chancellor M Anandakrishnan, to end confusion that prevailed in admission to engineering colleges in the past few years.

The panel sought opinions from students and educationists on the issue and also examined past examination records to establish a legal ground for abolishing CET.

However, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had maintained that the CET could not be scrapped and the test would be held for the 2007-2008 academic year.

AICTE Chairman Prof Damodar Acharya, who was in the city recently, cited a Supreme Court directive that students had to clear CET for admission and the State government could not abolish it.

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