43 PG student's future hangs in balance over fee differences

Puducherry: The fate of 43 candidates selected through the centralized admission committee for post graduate medical courses in self financing medical colleges hangs in a balance as managements have refused to stand by the fee structure fixed by the committee.

A meeting was held between the government and representatives of the medical institutions on Friday, in an effort to resolve differences.

The meeting was attended by Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy, and representatives of Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Sri Venkateshwara Medical College and Manakula Vinayagar Medical College. The college representatives gave reasons for their inability in accepting the fee structure and demanded that the fees for PG medical courses not be less than Rs.25 lakh.

A PIMS representative while speaking to the press clarified that the fee fixed by the committee was not viable for running the institutions.

“We were not consulted before the fee was fixed by the committee. The government has asked us to submit our suggestions in writing within a couple of days. We cannot decrease the fee announced on our website,” said the official.

Addressing the media, Health Minister, Malladi Krishna Rao said, “The fee committee has fixed Rs.5.50 lakh for these colleges. Since these institutions have refused to accept this fee structure, we wanted to resolve this immediately as going to court will take a lot of time.”

MLAs Lakshminarayanan, S.V. Sugumaran, Law Secretary G. Senthil Kumar and Education Secretary, Narendra Kumar, and were also present at this conclave.

The PG medical and dental Centac Counselling for seats was held on April 4, 11, 18 and 19. The earlier fee fixed by the government of Rs 3 lakh for the candidates who selected self-financing colleges through Centac counselling under government quota was later raised to Rs. 5.50 lakh by the Fee Committee Chairman Justice S. Rajeswaran at a meeting on May 23 However, the self-financing colleges rejected this figure.

The Chief Minister is likely to resolve the issue by May 29 as he will be meeting Higher Education Fee Committee Chairman soon, reports The Hindu .