Govt dithers on amendment, no regulation on MBBS fee for now

CHANDIGARH: Alleged fleecing of MBBS students by private medical colleges and universities may continue in the next session as well as the government is sitting on the draft of the Act aiming at regulating the exorbitant fee charged by the institutions.

Vishav Bharti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 31

Alleged fleecing of MBBS students by private medical colleges and universities may continue in the next session as well as the government is sitting on the draft of the Act aiming at regulating the exorbitant fee charged by the institutions.

The budget session is to start from February 12 and the Cabinet has not even discussed the issue. As per the admission schedule, the notification for admission has to be issued in the first week of February.

Around four months ago, the Department of Medical Education and Research had prepared a draft, which had sought an amendment to the Punjab Private Health Sciences Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Fee and Making of Reservation) Act, 2006.

The new amendment had provisions to empower the state government to regulate the fee charged by the private medical universities.

The amendment draft had been cleared by the Advocate General in September and the Additional Chief Secretary, Satish Chandra, had sent the draft to the government around three months ago. The state was aiming to table the amendment in the winter session. However, in the past three months, the government has neither placed it in any of the Cabinet meetings, the outcome of which was that the amendment could not be placed in the winter session.

Significantly, the medical and dental education in the state is governed by the Punjab Private Health Sciences Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Fee and Making of Reservation) Act, 2006. But the Act mentions about regulating fee of only medical and dental institutes and is silent on the private medical universities, which mushroomed in the past decade. The universities are taking plea that their fee cannot be regulated as the Act does not have any such provision.

With the new amendment, the government had sought to insert the word “private medical universities” so that the Act could be applicable to all private institutes, including the universities. With the amendment, the fee is likely to come down from Rs 70 lakh to Rs 15 lakh.

In the session started last year (2018-19), Adesh Medical College, Bathinda; Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana; and Sri Guru Ram Das Medical College, Amritsar — charged Rs 50-70 lakh fee for the five-year course. The amount (Rs 13.42 lakh) is hefty.

Chandra said the matter was under deliberation with the Chief Minister.

The controversy

With centralised admissions at BFUHS, Faridkot, at least 50 per cent seats were kept under government quota, for which the government would decide the fee. But in 2017, private universities were allowed to take this decision.
The Tribune had, on July 6 last year, highlighted how the Punjab Government bypassed its own Act and an SC judgment while giving a free hand to private medical colleges to fix their own fee and virtually auction MBBS seats.