Thiruvananthapuram: The fee regulatory committee has submitted the new fee structure for MBBS course in self-financing medical colleges to the high court fixing it at Rs 5 lakh which is Rs 50,000 less than the earlier fee. The new fee for general seats is Rs 5 lakh and that for BDS in the general quota is Rs 2.90 lakh which is Rs 40,000 more than the earlier Rs 2.5 lakh. The fee is applicable to both government and management quotas. There will not be any change in the fee for NRI seats.
The fee for 15 percent NRI seats for MBBS is Rs 20 lakh and for BDS Rs 6 lakh. The private management association had approached the High Court challenging the validity of the committee as there were lapses in the ordinance issued by the government. Following this, the government cancelled the earlier ordinance and issued a new one entrusting the committee to fix the fee.
The HC criticised the government for delaying the ordinance on self-financing colleges and asked why it waited till the eleventh hour to take a decision on it. The court observed that there was no coordination between various departments in the government. “Last year also, the government had hesitated to act in time and the court had to ask the government to correct its mistakes. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that things are completed in a time-bound manner,” the court said.
However, the government which admitted that there was a delay in deciding the fee structure pointed out that the delay was due to interim orders of the Supreme Court and the self-financing ordinance was revised and published. The managements had sought clarity on the cross- subsidy to be given to students as the Supreme Court ruling had indicated that there should not be any cross-subsidy on fees.
