Kerala: MBBS seat-sharing in limbo
Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has not yet initiated talks for seat-sharing and fees for MBBS courses with self-financing medical colleges. The Supreme Court has already made unified fee structure mandatory. The state government which came under criticism over the high fees fixed for self-financing medical PG seats is not ready for high fees in the name of unified fees in MBBS courses. Last year, the fees structure was Rs 25,000 for 20 seats in BPL, SEBC seats. In the remaining 30 seats in government quota, the fee was Rs 2.5 lakh. The fee for 35 seats in management quota was Rs 11 lakh and for 15 seats in NRI quota Rs 15 lakh.
As the Supreme Court has rejected the differential fees, it would be difficult to implement reduced fees for government quota seats. Moreover, self-financing medical college managements have also opposed the clause in the ordinance issued by the government for introducing scholarships for financially backward students in 20 per cent seats. Though the state government had conducted two rounds of informal talks, the managements had wanted unified fees of around Rs 10 lakh for all seats. However, the government is not ready to concede their demands.
The unified fees structure for the present academic year as per the agreement for PG seats is as follows: Clinical- Rs 14 lakh, non-clinical- Rs 8.5 lakh, PG diploma- Rs 10.5 lakh, super- speciality- Rs 18.5 lakh. This hike was introduced in PG seats even as the fee for government seats in the previous year for clinical was only Rs 6.5 lakh, and non clinical- Rs 2.6 lakh. In case of management quota seats, the fee for the PG course during previous years was as follow: Clinical)-Rs 14 lakh, non clinical -Rs 6 lakh, PG diploma- Rs 4.9 lakh, super specialty-Rs 17.5 lakh. In case the government and managements fail to arrive at a consensus, the only way out is to ask the fee regulatory committee headed by Justice Rajendra Babu to fix the fee structure for self-financing medical colleges.