Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has assured students seeking admission to the medical programmes conducted by self-financing medical colleges that the government would take all possible steps to alleviate their anxiety over the situation arising out of the Supreme Court verdict putting the annual fee at ₹11 lakh.
Speaking at the T.K. Memorial award presentation to cardio thoracic surgeon T.K. Jayakumar on the Kottayam Government Medical College campus on Tuesday, the Chief Minister said the government was in touch with all agencies to ease the burden of students and their families.
“No meritorious student should feel afraid that he or she will not be able to join the programme on account of financial difficulty,” he said.
According to him, a meeting of bankers will be called shortly to discuss the issue. As per the order, the students are expected to pay ₹5 lakh and a bank guarantee for the balance ₹6 lakh. “We have asked the banks to extend the bank guarantee for these students. We shall ask them to avoid seeking collateral security and margin money from the students while doing this,” the Chief Minister said.
The banks would be asked to shun third party personal guarantee while extending bank guarantee to the students.
He said the government would also seek cooperation of the banks to desist from imposing bank guarantee commission on students from below poverty line (BPL), Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and those belonging to the fishing community.
He said the court had made it clear that the fee structure delineated in the order was not for all times to come. The final say on the issue lay with the Fee Regulatory Authority (FRA). “We would like the FRA to take a decision on the issue at the earliest,” the Chief Minister said.
Christian managements had already declared that they would charge an annual fee of only ₹5 lakh. They had also decided to skip the bank guarantee clause in the Supreme Court verdict, he said.
“If some of the managements can stick to the old fee regime, we will see how many others can do the same,” the Chief Minister said and added that the government would ask the self-financing institutions not to put the students into trouble. He asked the students and their families not to be disheartened by the present confusion and assured them that the government was with them.
