Chennai: Retired judge of Madras High Court Justice A K Rajan has asked the Tamil Nadu government to take immediate steps to eliminate National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) through legal and/or legislative procedures and make higher secondary examination marks the sole criteria for admission to first year medical programmes.

The government should ensure equality in opportunity to students from different boards of education and normalisation of scores may be followed, the retired judge who headed a high-level committee, has recommended.

The panel was constituted after DMK stormed to power in the state in 2021, to study the impact of the NEET-based admission process.

The committee’s report, based on extensive data analysis and inputs from students, parents and the public, has been published and shared with various state governments to expose NEET’s anti-poor and anti-social justice nature.

“DMK was the first to foresee the hazards of #NEET and undertook a large-scale campaign against it,” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M K Stalin, said in a post on the social media platform X, sharing the comprehensive report submitted to his government, in English and other regional languages.

In its recommendations, the committee said “the State government may undertake immediate steps to eliminate NEET, as qualifying criteria for admission to medical programmes, by following the required legal and/or legislative procedures.”

The government may take a stand that the words ‘University education found in Entry 25 List III is a ‘general provision and ‘Regulation of Universities” in Entry II is a ‘special’ provision: Entry 32 is an exclusive State subject that cannot be ignored.

Admission to affiliated colleges under the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University are governed by Act 3 of 2007 and hence admission to those seats will be filled as per the provisions of that Act. In this regard, the state may follow the required procedures to satisfy the legal and constitutional provisions, it said.

Alternatively, the state government may pass an Act, similar to the Act 3/2007, indicating the need for elimination of NEET at all levels of medical Education, and get the President’s assent for the same to ensure social justice and protect all vulnerable student communities from being discriminated in admission to medical education programmes.

The higher secondary scores should become the sole admission criteria for admission to first degree medical programmes, and that to ensure equality in opportunity to students from different boards of education, normalisation of scores may be followed, the committee recommended.

The socio, economic and other demographic ‘adversities’ that cause poor performance of all relevant students, mainly the disadvantaged and underprivileged, in their HSC examination shall be identified, and according to the degree of intensities of adversities, re-profiling of scores can be done using a pre-developed framework of Adversity Score’.

It emphasised the reformation of school education up to HSC so that ‘learning” as opposed to ‘coaching’ is fostered, and right from curriculum through teaching and learning to learning assessment (Board Examination), shall be tweaked toward enabling and empowering students with subject knowledge and higher order skills.

The rote form of learning assessment that leads to coaching shall be eliminated and that the acquired knowledge and skills shall be focussed, it said.

As far as deemed universities are concerned, an Act has to be passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly to bring all the deemed universities of Tamil Nadu under its purview, as under Act 3/2007 and the President’s assent has to be obtained.

“Based on the recommendations in the report, a Bill seeking exemption from NEET was unanimously passed by the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. It is now awaiting Presidential assent, after an inordinate delay from the Tamil Nadu Governor’s side,” Stalin said.

As nationwide opposition to NEET grew due to the recent large-scale discrepancies, “we are sharing the report of Justice A K Rajan Committee in English and all major Indian languages for everyone to better understand the ill-effects of NEET,” the Chief Minister said in his post.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third-term swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan witnessed an unexpected guest, which has now become the talk of social media. A video capturing the moment when BJP MP Durga Das Uikey greeted President Droupadi Murmu after completing the oath procedure revealed the presence of a mysterious animal in the background.

Speculations regarding the identity of the animal have been rampant, with users on social media offering various theories.

Some suggested it could be a leopard due to its appearance and gait, while others proposed it might be an ordinary domestic cat. The video clip garnered widespread attention, prompting users to debate over whether the animal was edited into the footage or genuinely present at the ceremony.

Amid the buzz surrounding the video, questions remain unanswered about the true nature of the creature. Rashtrapati Bhavan has been approached for comment on the matter.

The swearing-in ceremony itself saw President Murmu administering the oath of office and secrecy to a 72-member Council of Ministers, comprising 30 cabinet ministers, 36 Ministers of State (MoS), and five MoS with independent charge. Notable figures such as Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman, and S Jaishankar retained their positions as Cabinet ministers, while the new Council of Ministers welcomed 11 members from the NDA alliance partners.

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) : TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu who is set to take the reins of power in Andhra Pradesh shortly will have the daunting task of making bleak coffers ring to fulfill the “Super Six” that his party promised during the run-up to the recently concluded Assembly polls.

Naidu is scheduled to be sworn in as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh on June 12

As a precursor to his journey of financial challenges, Naidu needs over Rs 4,500 crore to disburse social pensions to about 65 lakh beneficiaries by July 1.

As part of his “Super Six”, Naidu promised to hike the monthly pension to Rs 4,000 from the existing Rs 3,000 along with a backlog of Rs 3,000 (Rs 1,000 for April, May and June) from July.

All together it would cost the exchequer Rs 4,500 crore in July, besides salaries to employees and pensioners which is pegged at another Rs 6,000 crore.

The new TDP government will have to mop up over Rs 10,000 crore to fulfill the financial requirements for July, a retired senior bureaucrat said.

According to him, the state government has a committed expenditure of nearly Rs 1.30 lakh crore annually to meet the requirements of salaries, pensions, loan repayments and interests.

According to the Reserve Bank website, the Andhra government offered to sell securities worth Rs 2,000 crore on June 11 through auction.

The state needs Rs 2,600 crore every month to meet the social pension alone.

Similarly, as part of the manifesto, the Telugu Desam Party promised free travel to women in government-run buses.

An official of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation said the APSRTC earns about Rs 450 to Rs 500 crore through ticket revenue monthly and women passengers are expected to be in the range of 35-40 per cent.

He, however, said there was no study on women travellers done so far in the state.

According to him, the Telangana RTC which implements a similar scheme estimated that women constitute nearly 50 per cent of the total commuters.

Towards the free travel scheme, the new government will have to reimburse nearly Rs 2,000 crore annually to the APSRTC.

Under “Super Six,” the TDP also promised Rs 15,000 to every school-going child per annum.

The outgoing YRS Congress Party government had earmarked Rs 6,500 crore towards a similar scheme called “Amma Vodi.”

With Naidu removing the cap on the number of beneficiaries, the amount may go up substantially.

The party also promised three free cooking gas cylinders to every household per year and Rs 20,000 annual financial assistance to every farmer, among others.

According to the government budget document 2023-24, the state has Rs 4.83 lakh crore public debt (33.3 per cent of GSDP), besides Rs 1.39 lakh crore government guarantees and Rs 26,296 crore of loans from the Centre.

The total Revenue Receipts in the Budget (vote-on-account) for 2024-25 are estimated at Rs 2,05,352.19 crore while the expenditure was pegged at Rs 2,30,110.41 crore.

While launching the YSRCP manifesto during the run-up to the recently concluded Assembly polls, the outgoing Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy alleged it will cost an exorbitant Rs 1.21 lakh crore per annum to fulfil the TDP’s poll promises.

Sonia Gandhi was accompanied by her son and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, besides her daughter and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

“CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, and General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called on the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wazed this afternoon in New Delhi,” the Congress said in a post on ‘X’.

“We discussed a wide range of topics to further strengthen the natural bond that India and Bangladesh share, based on trust, cooperation, and a commitment to mutual growth,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on his WhatsApp channel.

He also shared a video of the meeting with Hasina.

The Congress also shared the video, besides pictures of the meeting and said they discussed a wide range of topics to strengthen the India-Bangladesh bond.

The photos showed Hasina greeting Sonia Gandhi with a hug. The Gandhi family shares a close bond with Sheikh Hasina’s family.

Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka also met with the visiting Bangladesh delegation accompanying the prime minister.

Hasina arrived in Delhi on Saturday to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on June 9.

The Union Cabinet in its first meeting under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday approved government assistance for the construction of three crore houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).

This was the first meeting of the Union Cabinet of Modi 3.0 government held at the Prime Minister’s 7, Lok Kalyan Marg residence. The meeting was attended by ministers of all allies of the NDA.

“It has been decided in the Cabinet meeting today to provide assistance to three crore additional rural and urban households for the construction of houses to meet the housing requirements arising out of the increase in the number of eligible families,” officials said.

The government of India is implementing the PMAY since 2015-16 to provide assistance to eligible rural and urban households for the construction of houses with basic amenities.

Under PMAY, a total of 4.21 crore houses have been completed for the eligible poor families under the housing schemes in the last 10 years.

All the houses constructed under PMAY are provided basic amenities like household toilets, LPG connection, electricity connection and functional household tap connection through convergence with other schemes of the central and state governments.

At 36, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu is the youngest minister while 79-year-old Jitan Ram Manjhi is the oldest minister to be inducted in the 18th Lok Sabha.

Naidu, Srikakulam MP from Telugu Desam Party (TDP), was sworn in as a minister of state (MoS) in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Council of Ministers.

Another young minister is Raksha Khadse (37), an MP from Maharashtra. She won the Raver Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra.

Manjhi was sworn in as a Union Cabinet Minister in Modi 3.0 government.

He has served as the 23rd chief minister of Bihar, and is the founding president of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM).

Previously, Manjhi had served as the minister for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes welfare in Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet. He won the Gaya seat in 2024 general elections.

Some of the other young ministers include Chirag Paswan and Jayant Choudhary.

PM Modi, along with his 71 ministers, took oath on Sunday as the new coalition government was formed after two full tenures in which the BJP enjoyed a majority on its own.

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday put on a brave face over the AAP’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, saying that the party has won three seats in the state compared to just one in 2019 and increased its vote share.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress dealt a blow to the ruling AAP and the opposition BJP and SAD, winning seven seats in the high-stakes polls in Punjab even as two independents registered a surprise victory.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could win only three seats — Anandpur Sahib, Hoshiarpur and Sangrur — as against the target of winning all constituencies in the just-concluded elections.

Replying to a question on the AAP’s performance, Mann said the party won only one seat in 2019 and its vote share was just 7.50 per cent.

“This time, we won three seats. We wrested the Sangrur seat, which is our stronghold,” Mann told reporters in Mohali after offering prayers at a gurdwara on the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev.

In a 2022 bypoll, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) candidate Simranjit Singh Mann defeated AAP’s Gurmail Singh by a margin of more than 5,800 votes from the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.

The chief minister said the AAP’s vote share also increased to 26 per cent in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Mann said while the Congress got 35.50 lakh votes, the AAP polled 35.20 lakh votes.

Commenting on the rival parties’ performance, the chief minister said the Congress party’s vote share declined from 40 per cent in 2019 to 26 per cent this time while the BJP, which drew a blank, lost its stronghold of Hoshiarpur.

Mann also said several candidates of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) lost their security deposits.

The AAP leader said the poll outcome was being reviewed and shortcomings, if any, will be removed.

During the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, the AAP had fielded eight sitting MLAs, including five ministers, however, only one of them — Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer — could register a win.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, the AAP won only the Sangrur Lok Sabha seat.

Responding to a question, the CM slammed the BJP for its slogan of ‘400 paar’, saying the saffron party fell short of the majority mark.

“Now they (BJP) do not call it the Modi government. They have started saying the NDA government. Now the dictatorship, which was there earlier, will not work,” he said.

Mann said BJP bigwigs like Smriti Irani and Arjun Munda lost the elections and several losing candidates as ministers in the new Cabinet led by Narendra Modi.

Ravneet Bittu, who has been made the minister of state in the Modi Cabinet, should flag the issues of Punjab, especially withholding of funds, with the Union government so that they are released, Mann said.

It is imperative to give impetus to the development of the state and prosperity of its people, he added.

Bittu was defeated by Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring in Ludhiana.

Replying to a question, Mann said the state government is ready for the July 10 by-election in Jalandhar (West) assembly segment which was necessitated following the resignation of Sheetal Angural as AAP MLA.

The CM said his government was prepared for the ensuing paddy season in the state and asserted that the state government has taken several “pro-people” and citizen-centric initiatives.

  New Delhi is gearing up to host a grand swearing-in ceremony for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term, with a notable guest list including Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu. Despite strained relations since Muizzu assumed office last November, India has extended an invitation, signaling a diplomatic gesture towards improving ties.

Muizzu’s presidency saw a departure from traditional diplomatic protocols, with his initial visits to Turkey and China instead of India. However, India’s invitation marks his first official visit to the country since taking office.

The invitation comes amidst past tensions, as Muizzu had criticized India during his election campaign and called for the withdrawal of Indian military personnel from Maldives. Since then, all Indian armed forces have left the nation.

Acknowledging the invitation, Muizzu expressed gratitude to PM Modi and emphasized his commitment to strengthening ties with India. The upcoming ceremony will not only witness Muizzu’s attendance but also that of other South Asian leaders, reaffirming India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.