November 18, 2020: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami has announced 7.5% to be reserved in medical institutions across the states for government school candidates.

As per the announcement, government school students who cleared the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) 2020 will receive a total of 313 MBBS and 92 BDS seats in introductory 2020-2021 academic year.

Tamil Nadu government will ensure 405 reserved seats for state-run school students starting from the academic session 2020-2021. Earlier, mere 6 seats were reserved for students coming from government schools.

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K Palaniswami stated that the State Government decided to provide seat quota to students pursuing undergraduate courses as he was moved by the plight of government school students unable to pursue medical education.

On October 30, 2020, Governor Banwarilal Purohit had given his approval to the quota bill adopted by Tamil Nadu Assembly. The assembly had earlier acquired a bill anticipating 7.5 % reservation in UG medical courses to government school students through NEET 2020 counselling.

Banwarilal Purohit issued the order amid pressure from political parties for implementing the seat quota from the Academic year 2020 -2021. 

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Moreover, Chief Minister K Palaniswami claimed that his government has transformed many lives by providing admissions to government school students in medical colleges through 7.5 % reservation. He gave away the orders to beneficiaries of the new quota at the medical counselling.

Palaniswami stated, “Since I am a government school student, I understood their plight and decided to improve their prospects in pursuing higher education, especially in the medical field.” He further added due to this reason his government enacted the GO on a 7.5% (horizontal) quota.

TN Chief Minister said that this step is a significant rise for the students coming from 3,054 government schools. Earlier, only 6 seats were reserved for about 3.5 Lakh students studying in class 12th constituting only 41% of the student population out of a total of 8.5 Lakh students.

He took pride in stating that his government fulfills the aspirations of the poor and through this quota, government school students will dedicatedly serve underprivileged people. 

Now, the families of State government-run school students securing seats in medical colleges will be called doctor families, he further added.

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Additionally, Palaniswami, while handing over seat allotment orders, presented stethoscopes and aprons to 18 students. He also announced post-matric scholarship and education assistance to the government school students.

Schools run by Panchayats, welfare schools for AdiDravidar, municipalities and corporations schools, and even tribal schools will be benefited from the government’s education assistance.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr. C Vijaya Baskar stated that students and parents thanked CM Palaniswami for providing allotment orders under the 7.5% quota.

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