Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Government abetting private managements, says Chandy

Oommen Chandy

Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy on Saturday accused the government of abetting self-financing private medical college managements in their attempts to charge higher fee.

In a statement here in the context of the Supreme Court verdict invalidating the agreement the government signed with six self-financing medical colleges, Mr. Chandy pointed out to a government order, issued five days before the Supreme Court verdict, raising the fee in government merit seats from Rs.45,000 to Rs.2.40 lakh.

Terming it an extraordinary measure, Mr. Chandy said the order remained silent about the fee structure in the management seats.

The order was issued in order to facilitate the managements to conveniently interpret law as and when the Supreme Court verdict was delivered.

In effect, it prepared the ground for the private medical colleges to circumvent the P.A. Mohammed Committee’s fee structure of Rs.2.40 lakh and charge Rs.5.5 lakh as fee and Rs.5 lakh as deposit for management seats. The fee hike was allowed much above the expectations of the managements, Mr. Chandy said.

He said the Mohammed committee had the sole power to decide on the fee structure as per Section 6 of the legislation regulating the self-financing professional institutions brought in by the LDF government. Significantly, the court did not strike down this provision.

He accused the government of bypassing the committee of its own creation and directly signing an agreement with the managements for the second year in succession.

The students who secured admissions in merit seats paying Rs.45,000 and their parents had been cheated. Not many parents would be able to meet the annual fee commitment of Rs.2.40 lakh, he added.

Mr. Chandy wanted the government to ensure that the fee structure in government merit seats would be Rs.45,000 and suggested that the government should provide scholarship for the rest of the amount. He also wanted the government to ensure that the medical colleges would stick to the fee structure as recommended by the Mohammed committee.

Mr. Chandy said the LDF, which had conducted a violent agitation while in Opposition demanding government-designated fee in management seats, had now given up this stand even in relation to merit seats in these institutions.

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