Thiruvananthapuram: Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has proposed a scholarship scheme for meritorious but economically backward students seeking admission in self-financing medical colleges in the state. Mr Chandy, while mooting the ‘scholarship’ proposal in the Assembly on Wednesday, said the government should induce the managements to provide subsidy to these students.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the state government was open to the proposal. “However, I am not sure whether managements will cooperate. But we will surely explore the option,” the Chief Minister said. The scholarship idea came up during the adjournment motion moved by Congress legislator Hibi Eden against the police attack on the KSU march in the capital on May 16. Mr Eden had argued that the march was taken out to protest the huge increase in the fees charged by self-financing managements.
Opposition leader Mr Ramesh Chennithala, too, later said that the LDF government was acting in cahoots with private managements. “The state government held parleys with the managements and it was after this that they raised the medical education fee to Rs 8 lakh. The government did not do anything to bring down the fee,” Mr Chennithala said.
In response, the Chief Minister said that the government was helpless in the matter. “After the NEET had come into force, the 50 percent merit quota arrangement has ceased to exist. The government can no more enter into any agreement with private managements. All admissions are done through NEET and the fee is fixed by the Fee Regulatory Commission. The government can neither increase nor reduce the fee,” the Chief Minister said.
Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, virtually brushing aside the charge of the opposition, said he understood the government's predicament. “But then the government can ensure scholarship for poor students with higher ranks,” Mr Chandy said.
