Government’s unpaid dues to private medical colleges reach ₹1,200 crore

Maharashtra owes private medical colleges ₹1,200 crore for subsidized education, sparking tensions over student admissions amid financial mismanagement

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has not paid dues of ₹1,200 crore to private medical colleges by way of compensation for free or subsidised education for students from socially and economically backward classes. The whopping figure came to light when a tussle recently broke out between the colleges and the state’s medical education department over the unpaid dues.

The Maharashtra government has not paid dues of ₹1,200 crore to private medical colleges by way of compensation for free or subsidised education for students. (REPRESENTATIVE PIC)

The dues are owed to the colleges by various government departments such as the social justice department and the OBC Bahujan Kalyan department. Around ₹300 crore is due from the directorate of medical education & research (DMER), which comes under the medical education department. Due to the pending arrears, private medical colleges had written a letter to the medical education department on October 1, threatening to debar admission of students from the state’s merit list

In response to this letter from the Association of Management of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges of Maharashtra (AMUPMDC), the state government warned the colleges of action against them if they denied students admission. The colleges have subsequently continued the process of admission from the second merit list.

The conflict has highlighted the financial mismanagement inherent in the government’s constant announcements of new populist schemes. Members of AMUPMDC have 5,720 MBBS seats and 3,526 dental seats among them. “If there are 150 seats in one college, around 100 are subsidised seats under categories like SC, ST, VJNT, SBC, OBC and EBC (economically backward classes),” said an AMUPMDC office bearer. “Several government departments run fee reimbursement schemes for these, and pay 50% of their fees to colleges. As of now, the government owes colleges ₹1,200 crore in all.”

DMER officials admitted that there was an unpaid dues issue. “DMER is responsible for the reimbursement of fees of students from economically backward classes. As of now, the unpaid dues amount is around ₹320 crore for around 4,000 students,” said an official. Officials said that the dues would soon be credited to the colleges.

Private medical colleges have an annual fee of around ₹10 lakh to ₹16 lakh for the five-year MBBS course while dental colleges charge around ₹300,000 to 400,000 per year. “Considering the huge unpaid dues so far, the government’s new scheme of free professional education for girl students from families with an annual income of below ₹8 lakh will add to our financial worries,” said a management representative from a private college. “The burden on colleges for getting reimbursement from the government will increase even more. The government needs to solve the issue with better financial planning for such schemes.”

When contacted, Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary of the medical education department, said that the medical education minister would soon hold a meeting with private colleges on the issue of unpaid dues. Calls and messages to the minister went unanswered.