Source: thehindu.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DMK president M.K. Stalin demanded the resignation of Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday for not informing the House about the President returning the two NEET Bills, for 19 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slamming the Law Minister for not informing the House even a couple of days ago about this, Mr. Stalin said Mr. Shanmugam should take moral responsibility and resign for not bringing this to the notice of the House and allowing the Bills to lapse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reading out the Home Ministry\u2019s letter to the State government that the President had withheld assent to the Bills on September 18, 2017, Mr. Stalin said the State government had betrayed the people and the students by not informing about this letter. \u201cNineteen months have elapsed since the letter was sent to the State government. The Assembly does not even have the opportunity to pass these Bills again and send it back since the six months have lapsed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Intervening, Mr. Shanmugam said the President had only \u201cwithheld assent\u201d and \u201caccording to us\u2026 the dictionary with held means it is only stopped, it does not mean rejection. If the President had said he is rejecting the Bills and had sent it to us, we could have immediately brought it to the notice of the Assembly, so that the time limitation issue could have been addressed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Law Minister said he was willing to take responsibility for it, but reiterated the point on the issue of the Bills being withheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to this, Mr. Stalin asked why the government did not bring this up in the Assembly in the past 19 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe should resign for not bringing the issue up,\u201d Mr. Stalin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar intervened and read out portions of a debate from the session held in June 2018, where the issue had come up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring the debate, I had said the President withheld the Bills and the government has sent a letter to the President asking why it has been withheld,\u201d and accused the DMK of diverting the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protesting against the non-communication of the letter by Mr. Shanmugam, the DMK staged a walkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following this, the Congress protested against Dr. Vijaya Baskar\u2019s statement that the party was responsible for laying the foundation for NEET. Dr. Vijaya Baskar accused the Congress of being responsible for the suicide of a student, Anitha, after she failed to secure adequate marks in NEET. \u201cShe was pushed to that position only because of your notification,\u201d he charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a heated argument, the Congress too walked out. Mr. Shanmugam then read out a debate from the session held in February this year, where the issue had been debated.<\/p>\n