CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay on Wednesday urged the Union government to scrap NEET-based admissions and allow states to fill MBBS, BDS and AYUSH seats under the state quota based on Class 12 marks. This demand comes after the Centre cancelled NEET-UG 2026 following allegations of a question paper leak.
CM Vijay's Statement on NEET Cancellation
Vijay said the cancellation of the May 3 exam had "shattered the hopes of lakhs of medical aspirants across the country" and called it "conclusive proof of flaws and structural flaws in a national level exam." The National Testing Agency conducted NEET-UG 2026 across 5,432 centres, including centres in 31 cities in Tamil Nadu, where around 1.4 lakh students appeared for the exam. The exam was later cancelled after law enforcement agencies probed the alleged paper leak.
Reference to Previous Paper Leak Cases
Referring to the 2024 paper leak case, Vijay said FIRs were registered in six states and later transferred to the CBI. He also pointed to the high-level expert committee headed by former ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan, constituted after Supreme Court directions, which had submitted 95 recommendations for reforms.
Long-Standing Demand to Abolish NEET
"The Tamil Nadu government reiterates the long-pending demand to abolish NEET and permit the states to fill all seats under the state quota in MBBS, BDS, and AYUSH courses on the basis of Class 12 marks," Vijay said, adding that the exam had disadvantaged rural students, government school students, Tamil-medium students and economically weaker sections.
