The government has reached an understanding with self-financing medical colleges in the State to conduct the admissions to MBBS seats without a hitch.
This was agreed upon at a meeting between Health Minister K.K. Shylaja and the self-financing medical college managements in the State here on Wednesday.
In the general category, the seats that were released to the government by the managements last year will be retained as such this year too.
The college managements discussed with Ms. Shylaja the issues they were facing in running the colleges. The need to revise the fee structure was raised by some but the Minister made it clear that the government could go forward with medical admissions only on the basis of NEET UG merit and the Supreme Court judgement regarding that.
No change could be brought about in the fee structure fixed by the Fee Regulatory Committee. Also, there could be no violation from the clauses mentioned in the prospectus, Ms. Shylaja said. One complaint raised by the managements during the discussions was the delay in receiving the fee amount that was remitted by students at the office of the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations while securing admission. There was also delay in receiving the SC/ST fee. Ms. Shylaja assured them that the complaints would be redressed.
The government has decided to give scholarships to meritorious MBBS students from financially backward families studying in self-financing medical colleges. A corpus fund has been formed for the same.
Those who participated in the discussions included Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Rajeev Sadanandan, Entrance Commissioner P.K. Sudheer Babu, and representatives of medical college managements.
