Barely days after it was signed, the seat-fee agreement between the State government and the Kerala Private Medical College Management Association is in jeopardy.
On Friday, the association submitted a letter to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Health Minister V.S. Sivakumar demanding 20 per cent privilege seats in the management quota for the MBBS course in its member colleges.
The letter reportedly states that the association will be unable to go ahead with the seat-fee accord if this demand is not met.
Mr. Chandy and Mr. Sivakumar confirmed that such a letter had been submitted by the association.
Mr. Sivakumar told The Hindu that the association mentioned in its letter that it was withdrawing from the seat-fee agreement
“We will hold talks with the association and we will settle the problem,” he said.
In reply to a question, Mr. Sivakumar said the issue of privilege seats had come up during discussions with the association prior to the signing of the seat-fee agreement.
According to government sources, it is next to impossible for the association to withdraw unilaterally from the seat-fee agreement; such a course of action is open to it only if the government violates any clause in the said agreement.
There is no clause relating to privilege seats in the present agreement, the sources pointed out.
As per the seat-fee agreement signed between the association and the government, the fee for 20 seats in the government quota will be Rs.25,000 while it will be Rs.1.50 lakh for the rest of the 30 government seats.
For the 35 per cent seats in the management quota, the fee will be Rs.6.5 lakh with a deposit of Rs.5 lakh.
In the NRI quota, the fee in these colleges will be Rs. 9.5 lakh.
Managements demand 20 per cent privilege seats ‘Association cannot withdraw from agreement'
