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New medical colleges

High fee may make it tough for poor

SHIMLA: In spite of the fact that four more medical colleges are in the pipeline in Himachal, raising the total number of MBBS seats to 600, poor meritorious students may not derive any benefit as the government is weighing the option to run these colleges on “self-financing mode”.

High fee may make it tough for poor

The IGMC hospital in Shimla. File photo



Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 14

In spite of the fact that four more medical colleges are in the pipeline in Himachal, raising the total number of MBBS seats to 600, poor meritorious students may not derive any benefit as the government is weighing the option to run these colleges on “self-financing mode”.

The government has not yet taken any decision regarding the fee structure of new colleges and the number of seats to be reserved for meritorious students, open seats and NRI seats but a decision has to be taken within a month as the Union Health Ministry on the recommendations of Medical Council of India (MCI) has issued “letter of permission” to Dr Y S Parmar Medical College at Nahan for admitting first batch of 100 MBBS students from the 2016-17 sessions.

The fee for MBBS courses in two government medical colleges, namely the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) Shimla and Dr R P Medical College, Tanda (Kangra) is quite reasonable and less than Rs 2 lakh for full five-and-a-half-years course. However, under “self-financing mode”, the fee for total course could be over Rs 20 lakh for meritorious students while it would be much more for paid seats and NRI seats.

The government has already approved an exorbitant fee structure for Maharishi Markendeshwar Medical College, Kumarhatti (Solan), the only private medical college in the state and the fee for seats under government quota is as high as Rs 5 lakh per annum and poor meritorious students are not able to seek admission in the college. The government is also studying the structure of self-financing medical colleges functioning under Gujarat Medical Education Research Society (GMERS).The fee for general quota in the colleges run under the GMERS is Rs 2.5 lakh per annum while the fee for NRI seats has been fixed at $16,000 per annum (about Rs 11 lakh) which is exclusive of college caution money, library fee, hostel fee for one term and mess charges. The parents have been protesting against the high fee structure for government seats.

State Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur had recently indicated that the government may not have sufficient funds to run these colleges and may opt for self-financing mode.

The government has already applied to Union Health Ministry and Medical Council of India for permission to start MBBS classes in Dr S Radhakrishanan Medical College, Hamirpur, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Chamba and the ESIC medical College at Nerchowk in Mandi district from 2017-18.

The government has also signed an agreement with the ESIC for handing over the Nerchowk Medical College to the state with the condition that the college would be functional from the next year. However, the progress of Hamirpur College is quite slow and the land identified for the college is yet get forest clearances.

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