Opposition to raise NEET-UG issue in both Houses of Parliament on Friday; government says 'ready' to respond

PTI

New Delhi, June 27

Leaders of the INDIA opposition bloc have decided to raise the NEET issue in both houses of Parliament on Friday and members will give notices in this regard, sources have said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the INDIA bloc floor leaders on Thursday, they said, adding that opposition members are set to file adjournment notices in the Lok Sabha and under Rule 267 in the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile in her address on Thursday, President Droupadi Murmu said the government is fully committed to investigating the recent incidents of paper leaks and ensure that the guilty are punished.

A senior BJP leader said Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan could intervene in the debate of the issue related to the medical entrance exam NEET-UG whose question paper was allegedly leaked.

The leaders of various parties have also decided to hold a protest on Monday morning before the parliamentary proceedings start, raising the issue of “political vendetta” against opposition leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren and three West Bengal ministers, using agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and income-tax department, the sources said.

The leaders of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) met at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence here.

Besides Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule (both from the NCP-SP), Derek O'Brien (TMC), Sanjay Raut, Priyanka Chaturvedi (Shiv Sena-UBT), Sanjay Singh, Sandeep Pathak (both AAP), N K Premchandran (RSP) and Mahua Majhi (JMM) were present on the occasion.

Gandhi later said in a Facebook post that he attended the floor leaders' meeting.

“All of us are committed to unitedly raising the issues concerning people and fight for their rights,” the Congress leader said in the post in Hindi.

The opposition leaders discussed a range of issues that will be jointly raised in both houses of Parliament. The issues include unemployment, price rise, misuse of central agencies, breakdown of institutions, the NEET exams and paper leaks.

With the INDIA bloc parties demanding the appointment of a Deputy Speaker in the Lok Sabha from the opposition ranks, the sources said they would press for their demand strongly and discuss the names for the post soon.

They are of the view that the Deputy Speaker's post should go to any of the principal opposition parties like the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) or DMK.

“Floor leaders of INDIA parties met at INC President Sh. Mallikarjun Kharge ji's residence to chalk out the strategy for the rest of the Parliament session,” Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said in a post on X.

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