Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay on Wednesday urged the Union government to scrap admissions to medical courses on the basis of NEET and allow the respective states to fill seats on the basis of marks secured in Class 12.
“The Tamil Nadu government is reiterating the state’s long-pending demand to scrap NEET and allow states to fill all state quota seats in MBBS, BDS and AYUSH courses on the basis of class 12 marks,” Mr. Vijay said.
Referring to the cancellation of NEET, following a law enforcement probe into the alleged question paper leak, Mr. Vijay said, “This cancellation has dashed the hopes of thousands of doctors across the country.”
“This is not the first time that NEET has been compromised. In 2024, the question paper was leaked and FIRs were registered in six states and were transferred to the CBI. As per Supreme Court directions, the Union government set up a High Level Expert Committee headed by K. Radhakrishnan, former chairman of ISRO, which made 95 comprehensive recommendations and further probes over two years. This is irrefutable evidence of flaws and structural flaws in the national level examination.
Pointing out that the Tamil Nadu government has consistently and unanimously opposed NEET since its inception, Mr. Vijay said, “The introduction of NEET has severely disadvantaged students from rural areas, government schools, Tamil middle class families and socio-economically disadvantaged families.”
NEET-UG 2026 was conducted by the National Testing Agency on May 3, 2026 at 5,432 centers. In Tamil Nadu, the exam was held in 31 cities. A total of 22,05,035 candidates appeared for the exam, including 1.4 lakh candidates from Tamil Nadu.
Published – 14 May 2026 01:02 IST
