President Pranab Mukherjee lifts NEET stress off students for a year

Parents of students in Maharashtra affected by the Supreme Court's order on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) were a relieved lot on Tuesday after president Pranab Mukherjee signed the NEET ordinance. State medical education minister Vinod Tawde held a press conference and clarified that this year the 2,810 state medical seats would be filled through the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MHT-CET).

Tawde added that this year the 3,395 seats of private and deemed universities would be filled through NEET. He also said that from the next year medical admissions would happen only through NEET.

The NEET paper is based on Stds XI and XII syllabus. Tawde said he would soon conduct a meeting of education experts of secondary board officials to discuss what changes need to be made in the syllabus for preparing state board students for NEET.

The state government will file a caveat in the Supreme Court on Wednesday to clarify its stand if anyone challenges the order with regard to the ongoing NEET issue.

A parent of a medical aspirant and ex-member of the Maharashtra Council of Indian Medicine, Khurshid Shaikh, said, "We are thankful to the president who gave consent to the ordinance. It is we who started this campaign and got a positive response to it. My daughter appeared for CET this year and she is awaiting her result."

Those who appeared for CET can now view their provisional answer sheet uploaded by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research. The MHT-CET merit list will be declared on June 1.