On Day 1, MBBS counselling fails to take off amid row over cap on fee

Government fails to clarify on seat distribution and fee in three private medical colleges; BFUHS does not start counselling.

With the state’s department of medical education and research failing to release the seat distribution and fee structure for MBBS admission till Friday late evening, Baba Farid University for Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, the nodal agency, did not start the first round of scheduled counselling. There are 1,025 MBBS seats in eight medical colleges.

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BFUHS had uploaded the merit list on its website, but MBBS seats and fee in three private medical colleges including Adesh Medical College, Bathinda, Guru Ram Das Medical College, Amritsar and Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, are not uploaded. This has confused the students.

In the latest prospectuses, Adesh Medical College, Bathinda and Guru Ram Das Medical College and Hospital, Amritsar, have announced that they will not retain government quota seats as both institutes have 150 MBBS seats each.

In direct contract with this stand is a February notification of the Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) announcing that 50% of seats in all private medical colleges would be government quota, meaning the fee will be lower. As of now, Adesh has shown its fee as ₹11.9 lakh with 10% increase each year. The Amritsar college has declared its fee at ₹6.6 lakh. The government quota fee is ₹2.2 lakh per year. Both the colleges, have challenged the notification, with the next hearing in the Punjab and Haryana high court on July 10.

BFUHS vice-chancellor Raj Bahadur said, “We are prepared for the counselling and we are waiting for a decision from the state government. Once it is clear, the counselling will start.” CMC Ludhiana principal Jeyaraj Pandian said, “We have discussed the issue with the government. They will put out the seat distribution for public perusal.” Additional chief secretary Satish Chandra, who has the charge of DMER, said, “We will seek legal opinion on the matter from the office of the advocate general. The counselling will be completed on time.”