Private Management quota seats only under NEET :JP Nadda

Health minister J P Nadda has made clear the ambiguity on the admissions in private medical colleges. Management quota seats will only be delivered through Neet for the 2016-17 sessions. Seats under the state government quota in private medical colleges will be filled through state's own medical entrance tests.

However, the issue of unwarranted fee hikes by private medical institutions still remains a worry. Many private medical colleges are reported to have increased their admission fee this year, as it previously implied that it will be based purely on merit (when Neet was mandatory for states). This leaves little room for them to charge capitation fee, which incidentally is one of the prime reasons for voice being raised in support for Neet. The argument in favour of Neet is that students should not be left at the mercy of the private medical colleges and be granted admissions on merit.

Private medical college managements (of different private medical institutes) in Kerala has reportedly stated that they will only agree on a seat sharing arrangement with the government, if there is a uniform fee.

The reason cited by the demand by private medical college managements is that their spending is more per MBBS student. If the fee charged is compared to this spending, they allege that no college is even able to recover the cost they incur (on each student).

However, there are other states like MP, where six private medical colleges in the state have resorted to 25% fee hike. In Tamil Nadu, students seeking admission in a private medical college will end up paying a steep fees of Rs 80-lakh for the complete course.

Ordinance

Only State Government seats in Government Medical Colleges and State Government seats in private institutions will have exemption (if the state Government concerned so opts) for the current year,” a press statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said.

He also clarified, “Management quota seats shall be filled by the respective private colleges/associations of colleges and/or private universities/deemed universities through the NEET UG-2016 examination only, in all the States even for this year,” and added that starting with the postgraduate exam in December 2016, NEET will fully apply without any exemption.

The Minister was addressing media after President Pranab Mukherjee signed the ordinance, earlier cleared by the Cabinet on May 20, to overturn the order passed by the Supreme Court mandating that NEET be conducted for all the seats in medical colleges.

“The purpose of the Ordinances is to provide a firm statutory status to the concept of Uniform Entrance Examination for all undergraduate and post graduate admissions in medical/dental colleges, while providing a relaxation to the State Governments in relation to only UG admissions for this year (2016-17) in view of their difficulties”, Nadda said.