Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit has given his consent for the implementation of 7.5% horizontal reservation quota for the government school students in state-run medical schools from this academic year itself. The decision came a day after the state government facilitated an executive ‘Government Order (GO)’ to bypass the delay of consent from the Governor of Tamil Nadu.
After the approval of the bill, the Governor of Tamil Nadu issued a statement mentioning that he had earlier sought an opinion from the Solicitor General of India on whether the bill is in consonance with the constitution or not, and he finally got the favourable opinion from the Solicitor General of India.
According to sources, the Governor wrote a letter to the Solicitor General of India on 26th September 2020, to seek a legal opinion on the matter and the opinion was received on 29th October 2020. Thus, on 30th October 2020, the Governor of Tamil Nadu finally gave his consent to the bill which will provide 7.5% horizontal reservation quota for NEET-qualified government school students.
DMK Chief M.K Stalin, who played a key role in leading a protest to mount pressure on Banwarilal Purohit, praised the Governor’s decision today. He said- DMK’s protest and appeals by judges changed the Governors stand. Whatever be the reason, social justice has won.
NEET Reservation Quota for Government Students in Tamil Nadu – What happened earlier?
On September 15, 2020, the Tamil Nadu assembly had unanimously passed a bill to implement a 7.5 percent horizontal quota for NEET-qualifying government school students, whereas the governor of the state was yet to give his consent for the same and demanded 3 to 4 weeks time to go through the bill.
Further, DMK Leader MK Stalin initiated a protest against the delay in passing the bill. He said that the approval of the bill would be extremely fair for the government school students who aspire to be medical professionals but are not blessed with enough facilities.
Also, Tamil Nadu CM K Palaniswami had urged the governor to pass the 7.5% reservation bill for the government school students from this academic session itself. He said that due to the 7.5% horizontal reservation quota, more than 300 medical seats will be granted to the students hailing from poor economic backgrounds. The chief minister backed his comments, saying –
Of the 7,968 higher secondary schools in Tamil Nadu, 3,054 schools are managed by the government, which is a little more than 38 percent of the total schools in the state. Of the total 8.41 lakh students in higher secondary courses, 3.44 lakh students are in government run schools. Of the total 5,550 medical seats in TN, 4,043 are granted through the state quota. Eventually, only 0.13 seats are granted to the students hailing from poor economic backgrounds who pursue studies in government schools.
