Alleged Overcharging by 9 Medical Colleges in Maha, DMER orders inquiry

Pune: Altogether nine private medical colleges in Maharashtra have come under the radar of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), which has ordered an inquiry into the complaints by students alleging overcharging of fees, admissions conducted under institutional quota, and denial of fee concessions to reserved category students.

DMER started investigating the issue after students across Maharashtra submitted their complaints to the Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) cell against these nine medical colleges.

Issuing inquiry letters to these nine colleges, the Commissioner of Medical Education, Rajib Nivatkar mentioned, "The complaints have indicated that colleges are engaged in significant financial misconduct, selecting specific students to protect their interests. Consequently, students who were declared eligible for admission per the rules were not admitted. Accordingly, orders have been issued to investigate the admission proceedings of nine colleges."

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To investigate the issue, a two-member committee for each college has been appointed by Nivatkar. The committee will submit its report to the DMER after conducting a thorough investigation and consequently, the Government will take proper action, the Times of India has reported.

Maharashtra State CET Cell conducts the admission into the MBBS and BDS courses in various government and private medical colleges in the State. Among the available seats, approximately 15% of seats in the private medical colleges remain reserved for admission through the 'institutional quota'. However, before the commencement of the admission process, the fee regulation authority appointed by the State Government determined the fees for courses in the private medical colleges, including the tuition and development fees.

As per the TOI report, for admission through the institutional quota seats, it was decided to charge three times the regular fees and this information was published by the colleges on their websites. However, after reviewing the two CAP admission rounds, it was noted that these seats remained unfilled in many private medical colleges. When the students applied for these seats based on their financial capacity, admissions were supposed to be announced based on their merit. However, they were turned down for various reasons and this led to vacant seats in both the rounds.

Commenting on this, a candidate applying for BDS in Pune said, "When we went to colleges to secure admission, we were denied entry for various reasons and intimidated." Another candidate, who chose to remain anonymous, said, "Students are being charged between Rs50,000 to Rs1 lakh for various schemes like ID cards, health clubs, gymkhanas, laboratories, computer labs, and doctors' clubs. This exploitation of students and parents is ongoing in all private colleges in the state. Despite this, the CET cell and the Fee Regulatory Authority are shirking their responsibilities and appear to be turning a blind eye. In such a situation, to ensure justice for students and parents, we demand an investigation into all medical colleges."

In this situation, Shiv Sena Yuvasena Joint Secretary Kalpesh Yadav also wrote to the DMER and demanded an investigation into the matter. He added, "Medical colleges are exploiting students and parents under the guise of development fees. While it is mandatory to charge 10% of the total fees as development fees, colleges are indiscriminately charging students. Furthermore, we demand that guilty colleges be fined and the excess fees collected from students be immediately refunded. We hope you will consider both these demands positively and inform us about the actions taken."

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