As President Pranab Mukherjee signed an ordinance on the NEET exams on Tuesday, Health Minister J.P. Nadda said this will provide it statutory status.
The ordinance exempts certain state boards from the ambit of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for a year. The exempted states include Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Punjab.
The health minister, addressing a press conference here, said that while states will be able to hold the undergraduate exams, the postgraduate exams to be held in December will be under NEET.
The central government was committed to implementing NEET, but the states expressed their concerns which had to be addressed, Nadda said.
“State governments wanted exemption and the issues were related to parity of syllabus and option of giving exam in regional languages,” Nadda said.
After due consultation, we came out with an ordinance which provides NEET a statutory basis and where we give state governments an option to conduct examination and those who have conducted exams to go forward in that direction,” he said.