Punjab: MBBS fee at Private Medical Universities to get REGULATED

Expectantly, this law modification will restrain the MBBS fee to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 50-70 lakh, which the Adesh Medical College, Bathinda, Christian Medical College CMC, Ludhiana, and Sri Guru Ram Das College, Amritsar are charging for this year's session.

Chandigarh: The private medical universities in the state are soon going to face MBBS fee regulations since the Punjab Government has decided to cut this course fee 'most likely' to Rs 15 lakh from the current exorbitant rates that they are charging

For this purpose, the state government has sought an amendment to the Punjab Private Health Sciences Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission, Fixation of Fee and Making of Reservation) Act, 2006, to include all those private medical universities that have spread out rapidly over the past one decade. The Act seeks to provide for the regulation of admission, fixation of fee, and making of reservation in private health sciences educational institutions in the state of Punjab and for the matters connected therewith .

This decision is pursuant to the condemnation that the state government had faced for a long time on behalf of allowing private medical universities to charge an exorbitant fee for MBBS course. The government's allowance to these medical institutions came as defeat in an argument in which the latter affirmed that there was no such provision in law over MBBS fee structure.

Earlier the state government faced a lot of flak after the Department of Medical Education and Research (DMER) waived off the 50 per cent government quota seats in private medical colleges, making all seats management quota seats. 3 medical colleges namely Adesh Medical College, Bathinda, Christian Medical College CMC, Ludhiana, and Sri Guru Ram Das College, Amritsar. This was on the basis of reasoning that the above institutions were not just private medical colleges, but universities and hence government had no control over their seats of fee structure.

This amendment is, therefore, going to give substantial power to the state government over these private medical Institutions by regulating their MBBS fee structure.

According to a recent report in Tribune, this law modification will restrain the MBBS fee to Rs 15 lakh from Rs 50-70 lakh, which the Adesh Medical College, Bathinda, Christian Medical College CMC, Ludhiana, and Sri Guru Ram Das College, Amritsar are currently charging for this year's session.

A senior government functionary stated to the Tribune, "The amendment Bill had been cleared by the Office of Advocate General and was now with the legal remembrancer."

To get this amendment in action, the government intends to table the Bill in the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha, adds the daily.

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