Gujarat Medical Aspirants seek clarity on implementation of NMC Fee Order, File RTI

Ahmedabad: Unsure about the possibility of implementing the National Medical Commission's order regarding the 50% seats at the Private medical colleges, the medical aspirants in Gujarat have now filed an RTI application and sought to know from the State Health Department in this regard.

Although NMC, the Apex medical body, had earlier clarified that the fee order making the fees for 50% private medical college seats at par with the government institutes would be implemented in the States from 2022-2023, there is still no word regarding this in Gujarat.

Recently the Gujarat Fee Regulatory Committee announced the fee structure for self-financed medical and dental courses for the academic years 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24.

Although the Committee provided relief to the medicos by keeping the fee for academic years 2022-23 and 2023-24 unchanged from 2021-22, it did not mention anything about the implementation of the NMC fee order for the 50% seats of the private medical colleges.

Also Read: Fee structure of 50 per cent seats in private medical institutions will now be at par with govt institutions : NMC

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that NMC, the apex medical education regulatory body had clarified recently that the fees of 50 per cent seats in the private medical colleges would be at par with government medical colleges of that particular State/UT.

"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," NMC had mentioned in the notification.

"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," it added.

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, previously, the medical aspirants and students had sought details regarding the NMC fee order by filing RTI applications. Back then, NMC had responded to the queries by assuring that the new fee rule would be implemented from 2022-2023.

Despite such an assurance from the top medical body, the Gujarat Fee Regulatory Committee did not mention anything about this in the recent order that discussed the fee structure in the private medical institutes.

Therefore, the Students have now approached the State Health Department and sought to know from them regarding the NMC fee order by filing RTI applications.

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