Jayalalithaa: Pongal gift

Chennai, Jan. 13: The Jayalalithaa regime today said Plus Two students who clear the Tamil Nadu board examination will not have to appear for a common entrance test for admission to professional colleges, but students from other boards will.

Governor S.S. Barnala, addressing the first day of the concluding session of the present Assembly, said the “Plus Two marks of the state board will be the common platform for evaluation”.

“There will be a common entrance examination for students of all other boards so that they are brought on a comparable basis to the state board Plus Two marks,” he said, to thumping of desks by ruling ADMK members.

The Opposition, barring the BJP and the All India Forward Bloc, boycotted the address because it was fixed on a festival, Bhogi, and on the eve of another, Pongal.

In June 2005, Jayalalithaa had abolished the entrance test for admissions to undergraduate medical and engineering courses and said intake would be based “purely on the basis of the students’ Plus Two marks”.

The reason given was that the entrance test had become a “burden and a traumatic experience”, especially for students in rural areas who could not afford the costly teaching shops of their urban counterparts.

However, Madras High Court struck down the government’s order as “unconstitutional” and ruled that the entrance test was compulsory to enable a level playing field for students of other boards.

The Supreme Court concurred with the high court and status quo was maintained.

Barnala today said there have been widespread requests, including from parents and students, for an unambiguous scheme “based on the Plus Two marks of the state board”.

The new scheme will achieve “both the objectives of less burden and trauma for the bulk of the students who take the state board examination, as also the need for a correct method to bring all other board examinations on to a comparable platform to the state board Plus Two marks”, Barnala said.

Necessary legislation will be introduced, he added.

Since this is the last session of the Assembly before elections are held in April-May, the government will have to bring in the legislation soon, after an interim budget is presented next week.

All political parties in Tamil Nadu have been in favour of abolishing the test, and the PMK and the DMK had sought to make the test a poll issue.

To keep the bureaucracy in good humour, the Jayalalithaa government also announced a four percentage point increase in DA to state government employees and pensioners from 67 per cent to 71 per cent with effect from January 1, 2006. This involves an additional cost of Rs 282 crore per annum.

The government also stuck to its Pongal largesse ? 1.64 crore sarees and 1.64 crore dhotis will be distributed free among the poor tomorrow. This will cost the state Rs 256 crore.

In his 45-page address, Barnala referred to the chief minister by name only twice. This was in contrast to earlier times when the governor’s speech would be replete with references to Puratchi Thalaivi (revolutionary leader) Selvi Jayalalithaa in every page. While taking leave of the House, the Governor gestured a ‘Namaste’ to Jayalalithaa but just got a cold nod of acknowledgement in return.