Janjivan Bureau / CHENNAI: The state government has issued an order that will reserve 85% of government quota seats for students from the state board in the MBBS/BDS admissions, health minister C Vijayabaskar said here on Saturday. The counselling for allotment of medical seats to students will begin in Tamil Nadu on July 17, the minister said.
Replying to a demand made by deputy leader of opposition S Duraimurugan in the assembly on Saturday, the minister said if the state is not allowed to exempt itself from the NEET and admit students based on class 12 marks, the state will adopt the policy whereby it will reserve seats for students from its board.
“We will surrender 15% for all-India quota. From the remaining seats, we will reserve 85% of seats for state board students,” he said in reply to Duraimurugan.
Former DMK ministers K Ponmudi and Thangam Thennarasu wanted the minister to clarify what marks will be taken into consideration. Vijayabaskar said NEET marks will be the criteria for admission. “Out of the 85% for Tamil Nadu students, 15% will be for CBSE and other board students and the rest will be for state board students. Similarly, it is only in the 85% quota of TN students the 69% reservation for backward and most backward classes will be applicable,” said the minister.
On January 31, the minister moved two bills in the assembly to get exemption from NEET for Tamil Nadu. “We may not get the ascent this year. If we don’t we will have to go by NEET,” he said. The GO, which the minister said was issued on June 22, is yet to be made public. While the sale of applications and prospectus will begin early next week, counselling is slated for July 17 after centre completes counselling for seats in the all India quota. This year, for the first time, the state committee will conduct counselling for 24 government medical colleges and an almost equal number of self-financing colleges and deemed universities.
