The Karnataka congress government is now considering following Tamil Nadu to oppose the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) and is considering seeking a legal approach to seek exemption.

“We are considering the Tamil Nadu way,” Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said on Wednesday. Calling it a “scam”, he said that the government has considered doing away with it.  

“Our people have built institutions in the state. The institutions, managements, locals… they’re unable to provide seats to students belonging to their communities. We need a national deliberation on this. Students from other states have a reservation. But that is a different matter. We’ll discuss it in the days to come,” Shivakumar said.

Following the recent controversy involving grace marks being given to students and allegations of malpractice, Shivakumar had, last week, urged the union government to scrap NEET. He had sought that states be granted permission to conduct their own entrance tests for medical college admissions.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution against NEET first in 2017, accusing the Centre of “imposing” the exam on the states. The Centre rejected it in 2019. Later, a bill was passed in this regard in the assembly. The Governor returned the Bill and sent it to the President in 2022. The Bill is pending before the President.

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