Maharashtra Private Medical Colleges demand Subsidy for implementing Govt fees in 50 percent seats
Mumbai: While the National Medical Commission's (NMC) order regarding implementation of Government fees in 50 percent Private medical college seats is facing several rounds of litigations, the self-financing medical institutes in Maharashtra have started demanding Government subsidy from the State Government.
Approaching the State, the Association of Managements of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges of Maharashtra (AMUPMDC) have demanded to either drop the NMC fee diktat or allow subsidies to the colleges for its implementation.
Issuing a Statement in this regard, the Association on Thursday shared the annual expenses and the budget of the four State-run medical colleges in order to compare the same with the fees in the private medical colleges. With the comparison, the association highlighted the losses that the colleges might face as a result of the forced implementation of the NMC fee order.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the private medical colleges and Deemed-to-be Universities were not happy with the NMC fee order issued back in February 2022. The concerned Office Memorandum of NMC had stated that, "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.
While such a move definitely brought relief to a section of medical aspirants who choose to leave India and move abroad for cheaper medical education, such a rule fails to take into consideration the plights of the private medical college managements who pay lakhs and crores of money to set up the infrastructure.
Therefore, upset with the NMC order, the management of private medical colleges had urged the Union Health Ministry to direct NMC for withdrawing the diktat. The Apex medical body, however, did not withdraw its decision and consequently, a host of private medical colleges and deemed to be universities recently approached the Madras HC seeking relief. Similar pleas were filed before other High Courts and the Supreme Court as well.
Although NMC Fee order was meant to be implemented throughout the country, its course of implementation has been different depending on the State. Recently Kerala HC clarified that the concerned Fee order will not be applicable in Kerala. Recently, passing judgment in a similar plea, the Madras High Court Apex medical commission to reconsider its decision and issue fresh guidelines as necessary. The matter is also pending before the Supreme Court which has issued notice to the Apex medical commission in this regard.
Amid all this, Madhya Pradesh became the first state to implement the NMC fee order and the State DME has issued a notice confirming the same. While Madhya Pradesh implements the NMC fee order, the private medical colleges in Maharashtra have demanded Government subsidy for its implementation.
Speaking about this, Kamal Kishore Kadam, chairman of the Mahatma Gandhi Mission Institute of Health Sciences, and president of AMUPMDC told Hindustan Times, "As per the budget books presented by the state government, a GMC in Maharashtra spends anywhere between Rs 30 to Rs 45 lakhs on a student every year, but they charge only Rs 1 lakh as tuition fees because the rest of the expenses are met by the government. In case of unaided private colleges, with no government funds backing us up, allotting 50% seats on the fees of a GMC will leave our colleges running into losses."
He further explained how in case of GMCs, the Government sponsors for around 95-97% of the cost of medical education. However, in comparison, the private medical institutes need to bear all their expenditure by themselves.
While commenting on the implementation of NMC fee order, another member of the association said, "When we questioned the NMC about the fee fixation diktat, they asked us to charge more from students who will apply for the other 50% seats. But, how is that fair? It is also against the law. We demand that the state or central government either pull back this NMC memorandum, or start giving monetary grants to medical colleges to save us from incurring losses."
It should be mentioned in this context that while passing its judgment on the plea challenging the NMC fee order, the Madras High Court 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.
