Cannot Reduce MBBS, MD, MS fees at Raja Muthiah Medical College: Health Minister

Chennai: The Health Minister of Tamil Nadu, Ma. Subramanian recently clarified in the Assembly that the Government would incur a loss of Rs 300 crore if it would regulate the fees for students belonging to Government Cuddalore Medical College, erstwhile Rajah Muthiah Medical College, who got admitted to the institute before the Government took over the institute in February 2021.

He further informed the Assembly that as per the rules the fee fixed at the time of admission does not generally get increased or reduced until the completion of the course. "This is because if the fee is reduced after the completion of the admission process, it would be an injustice to those who chose not to pursue admission in the college due to high fees earlier," he added.

Such clarification came from the Health Minister while responding to a special attention motion, in which few members of the house requested the Government to bring parity in the Fee structure of the institute with the Government medical colleges of the State. Such requests had been made by AIADMK legislator N. Thalavai Sundaram (Kanniyakumari), Congress MLA K. Selvaperunthagai (Sriperumbudur), PMK MLA G.K. Mani (Pennagaram), CPI member K. Marimuthu (Tiruthuraipoondi) and Panruti MLA T. Velmurugan.

While replying to these prayers, the Health Minister further informed that the State government had already incurred a loss of Rs 119.88 crore after it revised the education fee to benefit UG and PG medical and dental students in October 2021.

The demand for reduction of fees in medical and dental courses at the erstwhile Raja Muthiah Medical College has been a long standing one. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year, after the college had been shut down for long time, the Government finally intervened and issued an order in January 2021 stating that the college would be taken over by the Government.

On February 4, the protesting medicos called off their protest after the Government announced its decision of taking over the college. The Government fixed the MBBS course fee to be Rs 13,610 per annum (pa) and Rs 30,000 pa for MD/MS courses on par with other government colleges in the state.

Even though the Government order had been out since February, it had not been implemented properly as the students were asked to pay 30 times higher fees by the college authorities.

Following this, some students who got admission before 2021 approached the Supreme Court seeking a revision of the Government order. However, the top court also could not provide any relief to the students and permitted the Government to collect the fees that the students had agreed to pay at the time of their admission.

As per the latest media report by The Hindu, recently when the legislators in the Assembly raised the issue, the State Health Minister pointed out "This G.O. is to apply for students who were admitted after the college was declared a government medical college."