Amid confusion on NMC fee order, PG Medical Education in Maharashtra gets costlier

Mumbai: While there is no clarity regarding the implementation of National Medical Commission's fee order for 50 percent private medical college seats, the Postgraduate medical education in Maharashtra has become costlier this year after several deemed-to-be medical institutes hiked their annual fees for certain courses.

Fees have been increased by as much as Rs 10 lakh annual for certain courses, adds HT. With this, the PG medical aspirants wishing to pursue their course in MD Radio-diagnosis or dermatology at MGM Medical College will have to pay Rs 35 lakh per annum. The fees for these courses at MGM Medical College was earlier Rs 25 lakh.

Not only MGMMC, PG medical seats have become costlier in several other institutes including Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Wardha, Bhartiya Vidyapeeth, and Pune based D Y Patil Medical College.

Therefore, the students are now in dilemma to pursue their dream courses at the private medical institutes in the State while paying as much as Rs 1.5 crore.

Although earlier this year, the National Medical Commission (NMC) had issued an Office Memorandum and directed to implement Government fees for 50 per cent private medical college seats, the order has been challenged before several courts in India. 

In the Fee order issued in February 2022, NMC had mentioned, "After extensive consultations, it has been decided that the fee of the 50 per cent seats in the private medical colleges and deemed universities should be at par with the fee in the government medical colleges of that particular State and UT. The benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to those candidates who have availed government quota seats, but are limited to the extent of 50 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the respective medical college/deemed university."

Also Read: Madhya Pradesh becomes first state to implement NMC Order on Govt fee for 50 percent private medical college seats

"However, if the government quota seats are less than 50 per cent of total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail the benefit of a fee equivalent to the government medical college fees, based purely on the merit," the Commission had added.

Although the move had been highly appreciated by the medical aspirants across India, the private medical college managements had challenged the order since it failed to take into consideration the plights of the private medical institutes who pay lakhs and crores of money to set up the infrastructure. Pleas had been filed before Madras High Court, Kerala High Court and also the Supreme Court.

Previously, while considering similar pleas, the Kerala High Court had clarified that the concerned Fee order will not be applicable in Kerala. Similarly, the Madras High Court had asked NMC to reconsider its decision and issue fresh guidelines as necessary. In its order, the Madras HC expressed concern over the possibility of several seats going vacant because of the high fees in the other 50 percent seats in the self-financed institutes. However, the matter is still pending before the Supreme Court.

Therefore, there is still no clarity regarding the implementation of NMC fee order and amid all this, recently the Madhya Pradesh Government decided to implement the rule for the admission to Postgraduate medical courses. With this, MP became the first state for agreeing to the NMC terms. While Madhya Pradesh agreed for its implementation, the private medical colleges in Maharashtra have demanded subsidy from the Government for implementing the rule.