Panneerselvam commends Jaitley for balancing act

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam commended Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for the balancing act with the Union Budget 2017-18 on Wednesday but urged the central government not to impose national level testing on Tamil Nadu.

Reacting to the budget proposals Panneerselvam expressed serious concern over the National Testing Agency conducting nationwide entrance examinations.

He said Tamil Nadu is against common entrance exams like the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for medical college admissions.

"I urge the Government of India to ensure that national level testing is not imposed or forced in states like Tamil Nadu which already have a transparent, fair and robust system of admission based on a school leaving examination which is conducted with unimpeached integrity," Panneerselvam said.

Panneerselvam welcomed the budget proposals pertaining to agriculture, increased allocation for social welfare schemes, affordable housing and others.

"The taxation measures on the personal income tax side, however, fall short of the expectations of the salaried middle classes," he said.

He said the budget does a difficult balancing act given the constraints under which the Finance Minister was operating.

"But the people of the state of Tamil Nadu had still higher expectations," Panneerselvam said.

--IANS

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