HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh State Junior Colleges (vocational/general co-op) Management Association has appealed to the Government not to further reduce the fee for paramedical courses.

Association president D. Allabakash told reporters here on Friday that the Government had fixed fee for paramedical courses at Rs. 4,500 and released a GO in 2004. While the Department of Medical Education would charge Rs.12,000 a year for the paramedical courses offered by it, the vocational junior colleges were allowed to charge less than half of it.

Recently the SC and BC Corporations had represented to the State Government that the fee for SC and BC students of paramedical courses should be further brought down and made on par with general courses offered in Intermediate, Mr. Allabakash said. Running paramedical courses involved greater expenditure towards infrastructure. Some 750 private junior colleges offered vocational paramedical courses in the State.

If the Government brought down the fee, then junior college managements would stage dharnas in all the districts in front of the Regional Boards of Intermediate Education.

Separate boards

The association also reiterated demand for creation of separate board for vocational paramedical courses as in States like Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for better identity to the courses in the society.

Many employers were not aware that vocational paramedical courses at Intermediate were on par with those offered by Department of Medical Education, he said.

Other demands

Other demands include sanction of development funds to colleges with own land, jumbling of examination centres only among those offering paramedical courses.

Hyderabad district unit president D.D. Shah was present.

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