Monday, Jul 14, 2003
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Tamil Nadu
By Feroze Ahmed
Candidates, who gathered at the Directorate of Medical Education here for counselling to Masters in Dental Surgery, said they were agitated at the beginning of the session itself, as they were not informed of the fee structure for merit payment seats. The tension reached a flashpoint when a candidate among the top ten, who opted for a payment seat, was told that it would cost about Rs. 5 lakhs per annum. The rate last year was Rs.1 lakh a year. Taken aback, the candidates lodged a protest with the Selection Committee, asking why they were not informed of it and whether the revision was cleared by the Government. Following the protest, the officials postponed the counselling to July 19, but clarified that the date would be finalised later. The candidates pointed out that a postgraduate course in the lone State-run dental college — the Tamil Nadu Government Dental College in Chennai — cost about Rs. 25,000 per annum, but it offered only 14 seats, including seven for service candidates. Barring the top seven students, others were forced to seek admission in private institutions. The fees quoted by two of the four unaided colleges this year hover around Rs. 5 lakhs for clinical subjects such as Orthodontics and Conservative Dentistry and about Rs. 4 lakhs for non-clinical courses such as Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine. "We will have to shell out Rs.15 lakhs over three years. How can we pay that much," asked a candidate, who spent the whole of last year preparing for the competitive examination instead of practising. A candidate from Coimbatore said most banks granted only up to Rs.7 lakhs as education loan. A parent said he could understand the need for a hike, but it had to be reasonable. Only about 50 postgraduate dental seats are available in the State. A recent Government Order (No.130) posted on boards, after the candidates asked for its contents, states that the committee constituted for suggesting a fee structure for undergraduate courses will examine and suggest fees for MDS/PG courses in self-financing colleges. The recommendations are still awaited, say the authorities. DME officials said only two colleges declared their fee structures, while the other two not only failed to do announce their fees, but also called for a postponement of the counselling session at the "last minute", pending a case in the Supreme Court on the role of States in regulating admissions and capitation fees in private medical and engineering colleges. "It was too late by then to intimate the students. As they have already arrived we decided to go ahead with the counselling hoping to manage the situation. But the fees were too high and without government consent. So we had to postpone the session," an official said.
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