Even as the office of the President of India has confirmed that a letter written by Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan on NEET Exemption Bill had been forwarded to the Home Ministry, the Ministry has claimed that it has not received any such letter.

Expressing shock over the claim of the Ministry, the MP said it revealed not just the missing of the letter but the missing of honesty in the administration. He said he had written a letter, dated January 19, 2023, with an enclosure of copy of the memorandum already submitted to the President by general secretary of State Platform for Common School System – Tamilnadu Prince Gajendrababu.

“In that letter, I had drawn the attention of the President seeking her assent to the Bill,” the MP said. He reminded that the Bill had been pending for more than 15 months after its passage in Tamil Nadu State Assembly in September 2021. “The delay was causing great stress and ordeal for the parents and students of the State,” the MP said.

The MP received a reply from the office of the President, dated March 2, 2023, informing that his letter had been forwarded to the MHA for action.

However, the Ministry in its reply, dated May 17, 2023, to a petition filed under the Right to Information Act by Mr. Gajendrababu said the letter, said to have been forwarded by the office of the President, had not been received by the MHA.

Expressing shock over such a gap between the President’s Secretariat and the MHA on a crucial issue, Mr. Venkatesan, in a letter addressed to the President on Wednesday, sought her intervention and requested her to speed up the process of giving assent to the Bill.