TN rejects Centre's 'NEET based admissions for AYUSH' advise

The Tamil Nadu government today rejected the Centre's advise to use NEET marks as the basis for admissions to colleges teaching Indian systems of medicine and Homeopathy and said Class 12 marks would continue to be the norm for these courses.

The decision to continue with the current system was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Palaniswami in which Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, senior Ministers and top government officials participated, an official release here said.

The fact that that the Centre had not made any amendments in respect of admissions in the Indian Medicine Central Council Act was also taken into consideration while arriving at this decision, it said.

The meet at the Secretariat followed an advisory from the Union government, asking Tamil Nadu to use NEET marks as the basis for admissions in colleges offering Indian systems of medicine - Ayurveda, Siddha Unani, and Homeopathy.

Though the Centre had been giving this advise for the past two academic years, Tamil Nadu had expressed its "strong opposition" over the issue, the release said.

"The Centre has already been told that NEET cannot be followed for admissions to Indian systems of medicine," it said.

AYUSH stands for Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy.

The Central Council of Indian Medicine is the body that governs the education in native streams of medicine.