Even as Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi warned of serving show-cause notices to self-financing colleges failing to abide by the fee structure, defiant managements refused to admit student at what they claim as “unviable” fees that threatened the survival of self-financing institutions for postgraduate medical courses.
Entangled in this tussle is the fate of thousands of students.
Since morning, Ms. Bedi camped at the Centralised Admission Committee (Centac) office persuading the students to take the seats available under the government quota. In case the managements refused to accept the fees prescribed by the committee, the government would serve show-cause notices to bring them around, she said.
On the last day, the counselling began at around 10 a.m. and went on till 1 p.m. Around 63 candidates turned up for counselling for about 71 seats and about 26 students selected their seats till 11.30 a.m. The remaining 45 seats will be surrendered to the All India quota, said a Centac official.
The Lieutenant Governor told presspersons that all the seats under the government quota that were due to local students should be filled with candidates from the Union Territory. In case, there was still vacancy, these seats should be surrendered to the Government of India which would reallocate the seats to government quota.
MCI, DGHS informed
The managements could never come in the picture and the seats could not go to management quota. She said that she had informed the president of the Medical Council of India and the Director-General of Health Services of the whole selection process and the list of candidates had been placed before them. The present mess would not be allowed to continue and Centac would be revamped.
As far as the fee was concerned, it had been finalised by the Fee Committee appointed by the Supreme Court. A similar approach would be adopted in respect of admission of students in MBBS in private colleges this academic year, Ms. Bedi added.
However, the college managements were sticking to their guns and refusing to conduct admissions at the fee structure fixed by the government.
On Wednesday, candidates selected through Centac gathered in front of the colleges till late evening waiting for admission as the administration threatened that it would take way the seats if the fees demanded by them was not paid.
A candidate who had selected MD in Dermatology said that the management of a private college remained defiant even after assurances were made by the Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao.
The management had refused to accept anything less than ₹38 lakh for a seat. When the Lt. Governor visited the college, the management initially agreed to admit the students selected under Centac. But once she left, they refused to admit around 30 students who had selected the college unless they paid the full fees.
On the last day of counselling, the candidates selected through Centac were advised by Ms. Bedi to select the seats under government quota and remit the fees prescribed by the fee committee.
Students confused
However, a number of students who turned up for counselling and were selected under the government quota were at a loss since they were not able to decide whether to pay the full fee demanded by the management or the fee prescribed by the fee committee.
A candidate from Andhra Pradesh who had selected MS in Orthopaedics during the counselling held on Tuesday and received the provisional allotment letter was shocked to find that there was no vacancy on Wednesday. “I had remitted ₹17 lakh for the course in a self-financing college and received the allotment letter. But the officials now claim that there was no vacancy,” he said.
