NEW DELHI
Major political parties today favoured deferring implementation of Supreme Court-ordered NEET as the sole medical and dental entrance test by at least a year as the Centre kicked off consultations on the issue, asserting the matter was essentially in 'executive domain'.
As the parties addressed concerns by several State governments, which wanted their exams to be the basis for admission for their 85 per cent quota seats for this year too, Union Health Minister J P Nadda made it clear private medical colleges and deemed universities cannot have their entrance exams and will have to take students through the NEET route.
After separate meetings with State Health Ministers and political parties on the Supreme Court order, the government said it was in favour of implementing NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) but it has to take on board the issues being raised by the States on holding a common gateway test from this year itself.
Separately, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while referring to protests by many States over the Supreme Court order asserted that what should be the manner of holding the examination across the country is essentially an executive matter as it is in policy domain.
While Nadda chaired the consultations with the State health ministers, Jaitley presided over the meeting with the political parties. The consultations came amid reports that Centre may bring an ordinance to bypass the apex court''s ruling making NEET mandatory from this year.
“We are in favour of implementation of NEET. We are trying to address the issues of States. There are mainly three concerns of the States. All States have different syllabus and therefore a common syllabus needs to be formed so that students can prepare accordingly.
