Nadda briefs President on Ordinance on NEET

New Delhi, May 23: Union Health Minister J P Nadda today met President Pranab Mukherjee and briefed him on the Ordinance on the uniform medical entrance examination NEET that seeks to keep state boards out of its ambit.

The meeting lasted for more than half-an-hour and the minister is learnt to have briefed the President on three set of issues -- different exams of state boards, syllabi and regional languages.

The President had asked Nadda's ministry to explain the reason for taking the Ordinance route to keep state boards out of the ambit of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The meeting between the President and the Health Minister was satisfactory, sources said.

The Ordinance was on Saturday sent to the President, who is to leave for China on Tuesday. Nadda was to attend a health summit in Geneva but had to cancel the trip to meet the President.

The Ordinance, cleared by the Union Cabinet earlier on Friday, is aimed at "partially" overturning a Supreme Court order which said all government colleges, deemed universities and private medical colleges would be covered under NEET.

The President has also sought the opinion of in-house legal experts on the Ordinance. The assent of the President is still awaited.

Clarifying that the exemption is only for the state government seats, government sources had said the state seats which are earmarked in the private medical colleges have also been exempted. Different states earmark seats in various private medical colleges for state quota so that students from one state can get seats in another state.

The next phase of the exam is scheduled for July 24. Nearly 6.5 lakh students have already taken the medical entrance test in the first phase of NEET held on May 1.

Health Ministry sources said that seven states will take medical exams as per NEET while in six other states, around 4 lakh students have already taken the examinations.

PTI