Hyderabad:The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement in September 2013, ruled that it was illegal and unethical for private medical and technical colleges to demand capitation fees and directed the Centre and state governments to make laws to put an end to the practice, which denies admissions to meritorious but poor students. Six months later, as the terms of the Assembly and Parliament have concluded, no such law has been framed.
This year, the donation for PG medical seats has shot up due to the huge demand. Radiology and dermatology seats are being offered at a premium of '2 crore and '1.75 crore respectively. It is '1 crore to '1.5 crore for other specialisations. On an average, students attempt the PG entrance test five times over five years to secure seats under merit quota in government and private medical colleges. However, parents who can afford it spend any amount to ensure that their wards complete their PG and superspeciality courses before attaining the age of 30.
To cash in on this huge demand, the manageme-nts of private colleges have submitted fresh proposals to the Medical Council of India to incr-ease intake by 100 seats this year. It is expected to begin inspection of colleges from March. There is no such initiative from government colleges, which offer PG seats on merit basis at a nominal fee. This is the outcome of the government’s failure to release funds on time to state-run teaching hospitals and colleges to improve infrastructure and appoint faculty.
The MCI has been rec-eiving several complain-ts from AP over the sale of seats in private colleges over the last three years. It had written to the state government thrice to spell its policy on checking this menace but the government did not respond. The MCI had even threatened to put the admissions on hold, but in vain.
Students say that private colleges and their brokers created a sense of panic among students last year when the Neet was introduced, saying that it would be difficult for them to secure PG seats unless they secured good ranks in Neet and that there would be no scope for direct entry by paying donations even under management quota. This led to a huge rush for PG seats and managements exploited this situation by increasing donations from '1 crore to '1.5 crore last year. “Though Neet was abolished by the Supre-me Court last year, the managements continued to insist on increased donations. The only sol-ution is to bring manag-ement admissions under the government’s supervision. There should not be any involvement of private colleges. The fee should be paid only through government channel and not directly to the colleges,” said M. Abhilash of PG Medicos Association of AP.
Medical education minister Kondru Murali said they have submitted a report on regulating management quota admissions in private medical colleges. “Private colleges have come out with a proposal to conduct their own entrance test for management quota admissions, under which the seats will be allotted on merit. This will check indiscriminate allotment of seats,” he said.
