Medical fees row: State offered to meet halfway, but colleges refused, says Maharashtra minister

The representative of a private medical college in Pune contradicted Girish Mahajan, saying that the government never made such an offer.

As some private medical colleges continue to deny admission to students pursuing post-graduation (PG) owing to a dispute over fees, medical education and drugs minister Girish Mahajan revealed that the government had offered to allow institutes to charge four times the regular fees for management quota students.

The colleges refused the offer and insisted on being allowed to charge five times the fees instead, said the minister.

The representative of a private medical college in Pune contradicted Mahajan, saying that the government never made such an offer.

“The government officials had allowed for a 1:3:5 formula for fees, wherein students receiving 35% of the seats reserved for management quota get charged three times the fees and students receiving 15% of the seats reserved for non-resident Indians (NRI) get charged five times the fees. But the colleges refused to accept this. So instead, the government proposed a 1:4:5 formula, which was also rejected by them,” Mahajan said.

Earlier this week, the government gave an ultimatum to the institutes to either participate in the common admission process (CAP) or have their seats left vacant. While the institutes were asked to respond by Friday, they sought more time from the authorities.

A representative of a private medical college claimed that the government never made such a proposal to the colleges. He, however, added, “It won’t make much of a difference in the fees.”

HT couldn’t reach Kamal Kishore Kadam, president of Association of Management of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges.

The colleges plan to respond to the government by Monday.

Meanwhile, the state’s directorate of medical education and research has begun the second round of admissions for the seats left vacant in the first round. As of Tuesday, 208 out of 400 PG seats at private institutes were filled.