Two govt medical colleges get nod to admit students

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, June 13

With the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry issuing a letter of permission to two more government medical colleges to admit the first batch of 100 MBBS students each, the total number of seats has gone up to 600 in six state colleges. But there’s a bad news for meritorious students in the general category as only 274 seats are left for them.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College at Nerchowk, Mandi, and Dr S Radhakrishnan Government Medical College, Hamirpur, have got the nod to start MBBS courses from this year with 100 students each, while four other government medical colleges — Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, Dr RP Medical College, Tanda (Kangra), Dr YS Medical College, Nahan, and Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Chamba, already have 100 seats each.

Out of 600 seats, 90 seats (15 per cent) are reserved under the all-India quota, while in Lal Bahadur Shastri Medical College, 30 seats are reserved under the ESI quota and the total seats available under the state quota are 480 and 73 reserved for Scheduled Castes, 34 for Scheduled Tribes, 22 for physically challenged and 14 for OBC candidates. However, the number of NRI seats has been curtailed from 34 to 20 due to high fee.

There are 49 seats each in the open category in Nahan, Chamba and Hamirpur colleges, 48 in the IGMC, 47 in Tanda medical college and only 32 in Nerchowk College in Mandi. Six seats each have been reserved for wards of ex-servicemen and single girl child, five for Tibetan refugees and one for the ward of migrants from Jammu and Kashmir.

“The admissions will be on the basis of NEET merit through centralised counselling to be conducted by Himachal Pradesh University and separate lists under each category will be released after counselling,” sources said.

The government has not reviewed the fee hike allowed to Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College, (MMMC) Kumarhatti, Solan, and the fee for 50 per cent state quota seats is Rs 7.70 lakh per annum against Rs 60,000 in government medical colleges. Further, the MMMC has been allowed 10 per cent hike in fee every year, completely ignoring the objections of parents and students.

“The government has made a mockery of quota seats as no student from average economic background can afford to pay such high fee and will have to forgo the opportunity to become a doctor,” said parents of students.

The MMMC is the only private medical college with intake of 150 MBBS students every year with 50 per cent (75) state quota seats, which have become redundant for the common man. The parents are feeling cheated as Maharishi Markandeshwar University (MMU) has been set up under an Act passed by the government. They have been demanding that government quota seats in the MMMC be subsidised.

Fee structure

For the NRI quota, the fee is $20,000 (about Rs 14 lakh) in government medical colleges, while the fee under the management quota and NRI seats in Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College (MMMC) is  $33,327 (about Rs 23 lakh) per annum. The government has fixed the annual fee at Rs 81,760 for 50 per cent government quota seats in private dental colleges against the fee of Rs 30,000 in government colleges. The hike is 2.9 times, but in case of the MMMC, the fee for government quota seats is about 12.5 times more as compared to the fee in government medical colleges.