Regulate fee to stop students’ exodus, says medical fraternity

Bathinda, February 28

The medical fraternity has lauded AAP CM candidate Bhagwant Mann’s commitment to regulate fee of colleges to make it affordable for a common citizen and deter students from seeking admissions in foreign countries.

Even govt colleges out of reach

Forget pursuing MBBS from private institutions, which charge obnoxiously high fee, even studying in a state-run institution is not possible for many. Dr Vikas Chhabra, Vice-president, IMA-Punjab

Dr Vitull Gupta, chairman, Association of Physicians of India, Malwa branch, said: “We have been demanding reduction of obnoxiously high fee being charged by medical colleges in the state for long, but to our surprise, the government recently revised and hiked the fee structure, instead of lowering it. The war in Ukraine has exposed how a large number of students are seeking admissions in foreign countries because of the high fee for medical education in India. Mann’s assurance on regulating fee of medical colleges is praiseworthy.”

He said the plight of thousands of medical students had exposed the hypocrisy and double standard of the government over the fee structure. The powerful lobby of private medical colleges was forcing the government to further increase the fee, making it out of reach of middle-class families, Dr Gupta claimed.

Meanwhile, Dr Vikas Chhabra, vice-president of the IMA-Punjab, said: “The government must lower the fee in state-run colleges before regulating it in private institutions.” —