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."
"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.
Not only the colleges in Maharashtra have denied agreeing to the NMC fee order, but several private institutes have also increased the PG medical fees.
Also Read: SC agrees to hear plea challenging NMC Fee order today
As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, courses such as MD Radio-diagnosis or dermatology will now cost the students Rs 42.6 lakh per annum at JNMC, Wardha, while earlier the fees used to be Rs 38.95 lakh. Pune based Bhartiya Vidyapeeth has also increased the fees for MD Radio-diagnosis. As opposed to earlier fees of Rs 35 lakh, now the course will cost Rs 36.75 lakh per annum. Fees have been hiked at DY Patil Medical College, Pune as well, which has increased the fees across courses by Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh per annum.
Only a few colleges including D Y patil Medical college in Navi Mumbai have decided to retain their earlier fee structure this year. But there also, a student of MD Orthopaedics will have to pay Rs 60 lakh per annum and the fees for MS General Surgery at the college is Rs 40 lakh per annum.
Speaking about the increased fees, a PG medical aspirant told the daily, "The hike in fees across deemed medical institutes in the state shows how our only choice is to get admission in government-run colleges (GMC), or a handful of private medical colleges. It is impossible to afford ₹1.5 crore to pursue education in interested fields in some of the deemed institutes in the state."
The seats in the GMCs always get filled up by the top rankers. Therefore, several PG medical aspirants feel that they end up changing their preferences regarding courses because of the huge fees in the private colleges and deemed institutes.
While commenting on the long pending demands seeking strict regulation of fees, the parent of a PG medical aspirant and also an activist said, On one hand, the government wants to regulate fees and is announcing a fee diktat on 50% seats in private and deemed institutes while they are calling for regulation on the remaining 50% seats. How is such exorbitant increase in fees justified then? It also looks like the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) is not doing its job well on regulating fees of these medical colleges where the overall fees has increased nearly 300% in the last six years."
However, commenting on the NMC fee order and its implementation, the dean of a Nashik based private medical college said, "Government colleges can offer medical seats at low fees because the state takes over all their costs, but for private and deemed colleges, there is no such option. If the government forces us to offer 50% seats at fees of government medical colleges, we will run into losses, unless we hike fees for the remaining seats."
