Training and workshops for medical students will be held at the Anitha Memorial Auditorium on the Ariyalur Medical College Hospital campus. Seventeen-year-old S Anitha, daughter of T Shanmugam from Kuzhumur village near Sendurai in Ariyalur district, who had scored 1,176 out of 1,200 marks in her Class XII State Board examinations was unable to join the MBBS course due to NEET. She died by suicide in 2017.
Before her death, there was no government medical college in the district. Later, a government medical college hospital was built with a fund of Rs 347 crore and it is located on Ariyalur Arts and Science College campus. As minister Udhayanidhi Stalin was in Ariyalur on Tuesday, March 14, to start the health services at the medical college hospital, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu MK Stalin made the announcement from Chennai naming an auditorium built on the medical college's campus at a cost of Rs 22 crore. It is called Anitha Memorial Auditorium, as reported by The New Indian Express.
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This auditorium will be used for conducting training and workshops for medical students and health staff, according to sources. Speaking to TNIE, Anitha's father T Shanmugam said, "We are happy that the medical college auditorium is named after Anitha. Besides, the fact that the DMK has expressed its commitment towards its fight against the NEET and it gives us hope. We are confident that we will win against NEET through the legal struggle conducted by DMK government. Udayanidhi Stalin in his address in the assembly requested that the medical college in Ariyalur should be named after Anitha. It is fulfilled now. We believe DMK will get NEET exemption for Tamil Nadu," he added.
While, Thol Thirumavalavan told TNIE, “We welcome this and thank our Chief Minister MK Stalin. It is a tribute to the young girl's sacrifice. Her death sparked protests against the NEET. NEET affects poor students, especially the students from rural areas." Transport Minister SS Sivasankar, who stood by Anitha in her struggle against NEET when she was alive, thanked Chief Minister MK Stalin for the announcement.
SM Chandrasekar, vice president of the Parent-Teachers Association of Ariyalur government higher secondary school said, "Ariyalur medical college has now gone into history after its auditorium is named after the anti-NEET icon Anitha. Whoever visits the college, the auditorium will remind them of the anti-NEET struggle that started in the Ariyalur district following Anitha's death."
Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu, witnessed the naming of an 850 seater auditorium built at the cost of Rs 22 crores in the Ariyalur Government Medical College campus as Anitha Memorial Auditorium.
