Anitha's family rejects TN govt's Rs 7 lakh financial aid

Chennai: The family of Anitha S, who killed herself after failing to make it to a medical college, has refused to accept a financial aid of Rs 7 lakh offered by the Tamil Nadu government.

“Anitha died to get exemption from NEET and not for any government aid,” NDTV quoted Mani Ratnam, brother of Anitha, as saying.

Ratnam had turned away Ariyalur district collector G Laxmi Priya, who had visited Anitha’s family to give the cheque.

Tamil Nadu Plus-2 topper Anitha, who had gone to the Supreme Court seeking an exemption for students like her in the state from NEET, hanged herself at her home on Friday.

Anitha, who hailed from a Dalit family, could not land in a medical college despite securing an impressive cut-off of 196.75 out of 200 since the counselling was based only on the score in NEET, where she scored 86 marks out of 720.

Anitha, daughter of a daily wage labourer, had pleaded before the Supreme Court through a lawyer that her Plus-2 marks should be the sole criteria for getting admission into a medical college. Her family said Anitha was upset ever since the medical counselling began last week and was not interacting with anyone.

“She was keeping to herself for more than a week. She always wanted to become a doctor and we encouraged by her calling her Dr Anitha,” a close relative told this newspaper. Immediately after news spread about Anitha’s death, her father and relatives of the deceased girl resorted to a road roko for some time at Senthurai.

They demanded that the state and Central governments take “moral responsibility” for her death.  Activists blamed the Tamil Nadu and Central governments for their “dilly-dallying” and “constant U-turns” on students getting exemption from NEET.

The Tamil Nadu government had passed two legislations seeking exemption from Neet in February which were pending with the Centre.