Fee reimbursements pending, private medical colleges to stop admissions

In its letters to the secretary of the medical education department and the commissioner, state CET, the association said that despite meetings with the state government, no demands were fulfilled and the colleges are forced to suspend the admission process.

A member of the association, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Indian Express that while pendency of reimbursement of fees from the state government has been going on for a long time, recent decisions have further escalated the situation.

“The government has prohibited us from taking admission fees, instead it will reimburse us. The government has announced that all girls will get free higher education, which means the fee of every girl student will come to us from the state government,” the member said, adding that considering the high cost of medical education, the colleges are totally dependent on the state government.

In addition, the extension of six months to submit OBC certificates has created further problems whereby in case of a fake certificate, the seat goes vacant and there is no clarity from the government’s side on the next course of action.

The removal of capping of Rs 8 lakh for the EWS category is also turning out to be a problem for the private medical colleges. As per the earlier procedure, colleges used to take fee from the students and the government used to reimburse it to students.

“Now, we are told not to take money from students who are getting benefits of fee reimbursement. It means, we are at the mercy of state government and payments of more than hundreds of crores are pending to us,” the member said.

Despite the meeting between medical education minister Hasan Mushrif and the officials, the government has announced no concrete decision on reimbursement of fees. “It has forced us to take this action,” the member said.

When contacted, Mushrif said he was busy at a public meeting and said that he would revert soon.