Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil has said that he would take up the need for bringing a nation-wide Act to regulate the admission and fixing of uniform fees for professional colleges in the country with Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda during his visit to Bengaluru on Sunday.
Talking to presspersons in Kalaburagi city on Saturday, Dr. Patil said that an Act for bringing in uniform admission and fee in all professional colleges has become imperative after recent Supreme Court judgements on the issue. The full Bench of the Supreme Court, while giving powers to private managements to conduct their own entrance examinations and fixing fees in medical colleges, had also felt the need for a central law for the uniform admission and fee fixation policy in all medical colleges.
Dr. Patil said that Mr. Nadda would be in Bengaluru on Sunday to visit NIMHANS. This is his maiden visit since he took charge as Union Health and Family Welfare Minister.
He said that he would also request Mr. Nadda to clear the proposal for establishing the second unit of NIMHANS in Bangalore and give approval for upgrading the peripheral cancer centres at Gulbarga and Mandya.
To a question, he said that a meeting of private managements running professional colleges in the State has been convened in Bengaluru on January 3 to discuss the provisions of the revised Karnataka Professional Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Bill. “The government has already discussed he pros and cons of the bill with other stakeholders including student organisations, opposition parties, and parents”.
Dr. Patil said that the State government proposes to introduce the Bill in the joint session of the Assembly to be held some time in the last week of January 2015. The State government has already appointed two retired High Court judges Gururajan and Keshav Narayan to head the fee fixation and admission overseeing committees respectively.
