E-Paper
Inquiry order against 9 medical colleges in state
The order was issued on October 16 and instructions have been given to submit the report in this regard to the director’s office in the next eight days, said officials
The commissioner of medical education research and AYUSH Rajiv Nivatkar has issued a letter to principals of government medical colleges to investigate complaints of unlawfully collecting development fees from students chosen from the State Common Entrance Test Chambers through the management of private unaided medical colleges and conducting financial transactions in accordance with the institutional quota.
These colleges include Smt Kashibai Navale Medical College Narhe, Pune; MIMER Medical College Talegaon-Dabhade, Pune; Bharatratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical College, Pune; Ashwini Medical College, Solapur; MIMSR Medical College, Latur; Terna Medical College, Navi Mumbai; Vedanta Medical College, Palghar; Dr NYTasgaonkar Institute of Medical Science, Karjat and Prakash Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Islampur, Sangli.
The order was issued on October 16 and instructions have been given to submit the report in this regard to the director’s office in the next eight days, said officials.
The admission process for MBBS and BDS degree courses in various government and private medical colleges of the state is going on through the State Common Entrance Test Chamber. About 15 per cent of seats in private colleges are reserved for admission through this institutional quota. However, the course fees in private medical colleges are decided by the fee regulating authority appointed by the state government before this admission process starts. It includes educational fees as well as development fees.
It has been decided to charge thrice the prescribed fee for admission through institutional quota. The colleges concerned have published the information about this fee on their official website. Accordingly, the colleges are expected to charge fees from the students. However, studying the 2 CAP admission rounds, the institutional quota seats are seen as ‘as it is’ in many private colleges. Then the admission of these students as per their merit is announced for admission in institutional quota.
“Accordingly, the students went to the college for admission. However, they were denied admission citing various reasons. Therefore, these seats remained ‘as it is’ i.e. vacant in the first round and the second round. In the whole process, the colleges have committed massive financial malpractices and have selected certain students for admission to further their vested interests,” said Kalpesh Yadav, joint secretary of Yuva Sena.
Yadav had demanded to the office of directorate of medical education and research that all the colleges should be inquired about, and a report of their institutional quota admission process should be sought. Accordingly, instructions have been given to investigate and an order letter was issued by Nivatkar.
“While it is mandatory to take ten percent of the total fee as development fee from the college, they are generally charging an additional fee between ₹50,000 to ₹2 lakh. Similarly, another amount between ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh is being recovered from the students by giving various reasons like Icard, health club, gymkhana, laboratory, computer lab, laboratory doctors club, so the concerned medical colleges should be investigated to give justice to the students,” added Yadav.
