With the view of demanding Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit to provide his consent to the bill passed by the state assembly, five senior ministers of the state had met him on Tuesday at Raj Bhavan and placed their request to give his nod for the bill, which the ministers claimed would benefit the students from the rural backgrounds. 

The Tamil Nadu assembly had passed the 7.5% quota bill on September 15 to provide reservation in admission to the government school students clearing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The assembly has unanimously passed the bill and dispatched it to the Governor to get his consent to make it as legislation. 

While the government expected a swift ascent from the head of the state, the Governor hasn't taken an immediate decision of consenting to the bill following which the government decided to send a delegation of five senior ministers to request him to give his consent. 

According to reports, the delegation of five senior ministers - D Jayakumar (Minister for Fisheries and Personnel and Administrative Reforms), KA Sengottaiayan ( Minister for School Education), C Vijayabaskar (Minister for Health and Family Welfare), KP Anbalagan (Minister for Higher Education), and CV Shanmugam (Minister for Law) had met the Governor on Tuesday at Raj Bhavan and requested him to give his swift consent to the bill. 

Following the meeting, Jayakumar had addressed the reporters during which he said that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami has passed the bill in the assembly for the benefit of the government school students. When the 7.5% quota is implemented, many government school students will get admission under NEET. This is the land for social justice and the bill will help the students who belong to rural backgrounds.  

In a bid to reserve 7.5% of its medical seats for the government school students in the state and to ensure that students from rural backgrounds can become doctors, the government has passed the bill in the assembly with the support of all the parties and sent it to the Governor for his consent. Jayakumar further stated that the delegation has requested the Governor to provide his consent to the bill and the minister added that the Governor had accepted the request and said he will announce a good decision. 

It has been more than a month since the assembly passed the bill and it has now drawn major attention as the NEET results were declared last week following which the students from the government schools are hoping to get placed in some of the top medical institutions in the state after they had cleared the national entrance exam. The medical aspirants are hoping that they would get a reservation as per the bill and it will only become possible after the Governor signs it to make it as legislation. 

The ministers had met the Governor days after DMK President MK Stalin had urged the Governor to provide his approval to the bill. Stalin had also accused the ruling government of failing to put pressure on the Governor to get his consent. In NEET 2020, only 1,633 students from the government and aided schools, who trained by the state government, had cleared the exam in their first attempt against 2,557 students who had cleared the exam in their first attempt last year.