Bihar Private Medical Colleges to charge Govt fee for 50 percent seats, uniform fee structure to be introduced for GMCs

Patna: In a major development, the Bihar Government has directed the self-financing medical colleges and deemed universities in the State for charging fees at par with the state-run medical colleges for the 50 per cent of the total seats.

Apart from this, the State Government has also decided introducing a uniform fee structure in all the state-run medical colleges. The decisions in this regard were taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, officials informed PTI.

“The new fee structure will come into effect from this academic session itself,” said Brijesh Mehrotra, Bihar’s additional chief secretary, cabinet coordination.

After the implementation of this order, Rs 40,800 will be charged during admission to MBBS courses at all government medical colleges in the state. For post-graduate courses, Rs 49,200 will be charged from students at the time of admission, officials said.

Earlier, the National Medical Commission (NMC) had issued a direction to all the private medical colleges in the country for charging fees at par with the government institutes for 50 per cent of the total seats. However, challenging the NMC fee order, several private medical colleges had approach the High Courts and the matter is also pending before the Supreme Court.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that only Madhya Pradesh had implemented the NMC fee order and it had become the first state in India for implementing the fee order issued by the Apex medical commission.

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

Now, Bihar Government has decided to follow the same path as this Friday, the Bihar Government has directed self-financing medical colleges and deemed universities to charge fees at par with the state-run medical colleges for 50 per cent of the seats

"All self-financing medical colleges and deemed universities in the state will have to charge fees at par with government colleges for 50 per cent of the seats. The decision was taken to prevent students from going to other states for pursuing medicine," said S Siddharth, additional chief secretary (cabinet secretariat).

"The cabinet also decided to introduce a uniform fee structure in all state-run medical college and hospitals for different medical courses," he said. There are 12 state-run medical college and hospitals in the state.

Talking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Additional Chief Secretary Brijesh Mehrotra said that a total of 27 agendas have been approved in the cabinet meeting.

In this meeting, an important decision was taken for the education of students in private medical colleges. According to this, enrollment and other fees on all private medical colleges of the state will be in line with the fees prescribed for government medical colleges of the state.

He also informed in order to bring uniformity in enrollment and other fees in undergraduate, postgraduate and superspeciality courses in all the government medical colleges, the fee structure has been modified. Further, following the provisions of NMC, the private medical colleges and deemed institutes have been directed to charge fees at par with government medical colleges in 50 per cent of the total seats, adds IANS.

Due to this, there will be uniformity in enrollment and other fees fixed for enrollment in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in government medical colleges of the state. Apart from this, 270 teachers will be appointed separately to teach differently-abled children. For this the proposal to create 270 posts was approved.

The decision by the Bihar Government will affect altogether 10 government medical colleges and around 6 private medical colleges. While the Government has provided a major relief to the students of private medical colleges, the uniform fee structure in government medical colleges has been proved to be a fee hike for students belonging to Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

Previously, the one-time tuition fee was Rs 500 for the PG Degree and Super Specialty courses at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH).

However, now the fees have been modified to Rs 9,000 per year, which is a hike of 5300% for the three-year courses, adds Hindustan Times. Apart from this, the PG students will also have to pay a one-time admission fee of Rs 4000 for the three-year PG fegree course, Rs 2,000 for the two-year PG diploma course, and Rs 5,000 for the three-year super-specialty course.

This is in severe contrast to the current admission fee for PG degree and Diploma course at DMCH, which is Rs 20 and it was previously included in the tuition fee at the PMCH.

In case of UG medical courses, the tuition fees at DMCH have been modified from Rs 6,000 in the first, third and fourth years and Rs 12,000 in the second year to a uniform amount of Rs 9,000 per annum for the four-and-a-half-year duration of the MBBC course.

Currently, the MBBS students enrolled at PMCH pay Rs 6,100 in the first year, Rs 6200 in the second and third years each and Rs 3200 in the fourth year.

Along with the tuition fees, the UG medical students will also have to pay a one-time admission fee and caution money of Rs 1000 and Rs 10,000 respectively. Currently, the one-time caution money is fixed at Rs 1000. 

Charges for electricity has also been increased from Rs 540 to Rs 1200 per year. Uniformity has also been introduced for the annual hostel fee of both UG and PG medical students as it has now been made Rs 12000 per annum, which was previously Rs 7200 for UG students and Rs 12000 for PG students at PMCH.

Besides, the UG medical students will also be liable to pay Rs 500 per year towards magazine society, along with Rs 2000 as one-time fee for college activity, Rs 5000 for student welfare fund and Rs 100 as student union fund. All these fees did not exist till now.

Also Read: Matter of MBBS fee at private Medical Colleges: NMC asks SC to transfer and consolidate all pleas