An 18-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging herself in her house near here on Thursday after failing to clear the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, a day after two girls ended their lives in Tamil Nadu for the same reason.

A total of three girls have committed suicide within two days in the state after the NEET results were declared.

M Monisha took her life after she could not crack the exam for the second time this year.

“She could not succeed in her previous attempt last year and the girl this year has got a very low score in NEET,” a district police official told PTI.

The student, belonging to Koonimedu Kuppam near Marakkanam in this district, had completed her Class 12 from a reputed school at Tiruchengode in Erode district.

Leaders of various political parties in Tamil Nadu on Thursday reiterated their demand for scrapping the entrance test following the suicides.

In a statement issued, former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said there are no longer any doubts that NEET is destroying the dreams of village youth of studying medicine.

He said the Central government should get the President’s assent to the bill passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly for exempting the state from the NEET.

The DMK President M.K. Stalin said that in a federal set-up, the Central government should respect the sentiments of the states.

Stalin also said the party will raise the issue strongly in Parliament.

The political leaders said the NEET question paper is based on the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus, which is found to be difficult by students of the state board.

According to them, only students who can afford to join private coaching classes were able to clear the exams, while poor students from rural areas were at a disadvantage in tackling the NEET.

Prior to NEET, medical college admissions in Tamil Nadu were based on the marks scored by the students in the school Board exams.

In the 2019 NEET exams, the pass percentage of Tamil Nadu students increased by 9.01 per cent to 48.57 per cent.

A total of 59,785 students of the state have passed out successfully in the 2019 NEET exams, out of 123,078 students who appeared for the test.

(With agency inputs)