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New Delhi : In a major blow, India's plans to conduct a common entrance test (CET) for all students aspiring to study medicine from 2011, has for the time being been shelved.
The decision comes just a couple of days after the Medical Council of India announced that the Union health ministry had cleared the proposal for a CET for undergraduate and post-graduate courses in medical colleges across the country.
The ministry has been under tremendous pressure from several state governments, including Tamil Nadu, to shelve the idea. On Thursday, Union health secretary K Sujatha Rao told reporters "the CET is being kept in abeyance and is being deferred for some time now. MCI has informed us that wider consultation with all state governments are needed before going ahead with the plan. We will bring up the issue on the Aug 30 meeting of the Central council of health and family welfare. States like Tamil Nadu had some reservations about the test. We will soon work out the modalities and fine tune the proposal."
In the Rajya Sabha on Aug 19, both DMK and AIDMK had opposed the proposal. Expressing reservations on the test, PMK founder S Ramadoss had asked chief minister M Karunanidhi to take up the matter strongly with the Centre. Ramadoss had said the system would only benefit urban students. "This will allow backdoor entry of the CET in the state which was abolished a few years back in the interest of rural students. Further, it will also act against the state government's 69% reservation concept," he had said in a statement. The ministry was actually planning to come out with the notification of CET within the next one week.
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