The Kerala Private Medical College Management Association has called for an end to the ‘shadow war’ over the issue of fee in self-financing medical colleges that is using the association as a pawn.
A pressnote issued here on Thursday said instead of agitating against managements that showed social responsibility, agitations should be launched against those managements that put the government on a sticky wicket and carried out admissions all by themselves by charging a higher fee.
The Fee Regulatory Committee has now fixed the fee for those colleges that did not sign the seat-fee accord with the government at Rs.15 lakh for the 15 percent NRI seats and at Rs.10 lakh for the rest of the seats. This only validates the demand for a unified fee that the association demanded before signing the seat-fee agreement.
The association had demanded a uniform fee of Rs.15 lakh for 85 per cent of the seats and Rs.20 lakh for NRI seats. It was due to the pressure exerted by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Health Minister K.K. Shylaja that the association went back on this demand and agreed to offer a fee of Rs. 25, 000 for 20 per cent of government seats and Rs.2.5 lakh for the rest of the government seats. It also agreed to charge Rs.11 lakh for the management seats and Rs.15 lakh for the NRI seats.
Admissions have been completed in 15 medical colleges according to these terms. The generation of controversies even after classes have begun smacks of mala fide intentions.
