President Mukherjee says NEET wont apply to states, agrees with centre

He had earlier sought more information from the Health Ministry over the decision to bring the ordinance

President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday signed the central government's ordinance exempting states from holding the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for undergraduate medical and dental admissions (NEET-UG) this year.

President Mukherjee had earlier sought more information from the Health Ministry over the decision to bring the ordinance on NEET.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Monday met the President to apprise him of the ordinance.

Nadda — who had to cancel a visit to Geneva to attend a conference — is expected to meet the President again to resolve some fresh queries that have come up.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had also called on the President on Monday to not to sign the ordinance.

Kejriwal had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking him not to bring any order against the Supreme Court ruling on NEET, saying the students had welcomed the decision as it discouraged well endowed parents from making 'donations' to get their children admitted into reputed private medical colleges.

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

The Supreme Court had earlier ruled that the students will have to appear for NEET starting this academic session to seek admission to any medical or dental colleges in the country.

More than 15 states opposed NEET and raised issues like different syllabus and languages during the recent state health ministers' meeting.

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

Once the ordinance is issued, students of state government boards will not have to sit for NEET on 24 July.