There exists no circumstance for revising the fee in the government seats in 11 private self-financing medical colleges which have entered into a seat-free agreement with the State government, the education minister M. A. Baby has said.
He was speaking to media persons on the sidelines of a seminar at the Government Guest House, Thycaud on Tuesday morning.
The government is optimistic that the seat-fee agreement with the managements will be implemented in full. Students who have received allotments to government seats in these colleges need not be concerned about their admission. Only, their admission procedure will be determined after discussions between the managements and the government.
“The managements are understood to have said that they will receive the allotted students only after September 20. This was their decision alone, no discussions have been held with the government on this. The Departments of higher education and health will hold consultations today and tomorrow on what steps the government should take at this juncture,” he said.
Any question of a revision in the fee in government seats will arise only if the remaining 97 seats in the managements’ quota are not filled. The Supreme Court has directed that the opinion of the P. A. Mohammed Admission Supervisory Committee be sought on how these seats can be filled. The government expects that the Mohammed Committee will soon arrive at an opinion. The managements have not so far demanded the return of the 50 percent seats they gave to the government for allotment, Mr. Baby added.
The secretary of the association of private self-financing managements Sajan Prasad told The Hindu that the fifth round of allotments to professional courses published by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations was in violation of the understanding reached between the government and the managements following the Supreme Court’s observations on the issue.
“We had only agreed to allow the provisional acceptance of course-college options. We specifically told the government that no allotments should be done till the Supreme Court finally decides on the case. If we admit students now and if some situation arises tomorrow following a Supreme Court verdict, those students will be left in the lurch. We don’t want to do that,” he explained.
The Association is yet to take a final call on the issue of raising fee in the government seats in its colleges. If, for any reason, admissions cannot be carried out as per the agreement with the government, then the Association can either choose to charge Rs. 2.60 lakh per seat-as is provided in the agreement itself-or can choose to charge Rs. 3.5 lakh per seat as is being done at the colleges under the inter-church council, Mr Prasad said.
The present situation relating to admission of students to the 11 private self-financing medical colleges came about when the High Court of Kerala declared as null and void the entrance examination conducted by the Association on May 30, 2010 for admitting students to the management quota in its colleges. The Association challenged this verdict at the Supreme Court. However, the apex court-on August 31-declined to stay the high court order and directed the Association to admit students to the management quota (35 percent of the seats) from the merit list published by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations.
At the hearing on September 13 the Association submitted to the Supreme Court that there were no applicants for 97 seats in the management quota in these colleges. The Apex Court then directed that the opinion of the P. A. Mohammed committee be sought on how to admit students to these seats.
The next hearing of the case is scheduled on September 20.
