“The State cabinet has decided to allot 7.5 per cent internal reservation in NEET to all government school students irrespective of their language mediums,” said a government official on condition of anonymity.

After NEET was implemented in the State, there were reports that the representation of government school students in medical colleges in TN had reduced drastically. As a result, there was severe political opposition to NEET even as the government had urged the Centre to exempt Tamil Nadu from the national-level entrance exam. However, as TN was not exempted, the government appointed the Justice Kalaiyarasan committee to probe into allegations of under representation of government school students in medical colleges in the State selected through NEET. The committee, after detailed study, had submitted its recommendation to the State government recently. “The committee had found that there was serious under representation of government school students in medical colleges after implementation of NEET and recommended 10 per cent internal reservation for the students,” a source said.

Though the committee had recommended up to 10 percent internal reservation, the State cabinet decided upon 7.5 per cent. “The reservation will be applicable for students who had studied in private schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act till Class 8 and joined government schools from Class 9 to 12,” said a source privy to the development. According to him, an ordinance will be passed and sent for the approval of Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

The cabinet also gave its nod for setting up of five foreign companies in Tamil Nadu and the total investment is around Rs 5,000 crore.