PG fee hiked to a whopping Rs 98.95 lakh at Maharishi Markandeshwar Medical College

Chandigarh: Medical Fee for MD and MS courses in two medical colleges in Haryana that were allowed to decide on their fee themselves have raised it as high as Rs. 98.85 lakh. The two courses are the most sought after MD and MS courses. This has led to a disquiet among those seeking admissions to these courses.

Parents of some course aspirants citing the example of Yogi Adityanath government say reining in private medical colleges, the UP Chief Minister has pressured the managements to decrease the fee to Rs. 11 lakh per year(course fee for three years amounting to Rs. 33 lakh), in contrast to what is happening in Haryana where the parents are being fleeced, by allowing colleges to get away with a course fee of nearly Rs. 1 crore.

A 50% increase in fee has been witnessed in Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana, which has the permission to run MD and MS courses in the maximum number of clinical and non-clinical branches of medicine and surgery. The annual fee for MD in radio diagnosis has been raised from Rs 17.59 lakh last year to Rs 32.95 lakh for the 2017-18 session by the college.

MD courses in skin and paediatrics, which charged Rs 19.80 lakh in 2016-17, has increased their fee to Rs 31.95 lakh per annum, for the current year. While the MD/MS courses in eye, obstetrics, medicine, and orthopaedics gynaecology, psychiatry, surgery and TB chest has been raised from Rs 17.59 lakh in some cases and Rs 19.80 lakh in some others in 2016-17 to Rs 29.95 lakh for this year.

It was just last year, that the college had hiked its annual fees from average Rs 11 lakh to Rs 17.59 lakh to Rs 19.80 depending upon the popularity of the course.

The SGT Post Graduate Medical College, Budhera (Gurugram), which has approval for its non clinical branches alone, and is ‘ bestowed with special favour or permission’ has hiked its fee by more than 50%. None of its non clinical branches are much in demand.

The government medical colleges in contrast are charging a mere Rs 21,153 as annual fee in the state are charging annual fee of Rs 21,153 .

“My daughter is eligible for a private medical college according to her rank in the National Entrance and Eligibility Test (NEET), but the private college at Mullana is charging Rs 90 lakh plus as course fee for obstetrics and gynaecology. My bankers told me that according to the RBI norms, I can get a maximum of Rs 10 lakh as education loan for the entire course. I don’t know how to afford my daughter’s education,” says a parent.

The list of candidates with category wise merit will be displayed on April 12 and the counseling in Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, is to begin on April 18.

Anil Vij, Minister for Health and Medical Education and Research,said he wasn't aware of these colleges having announced such a hefty fee. “When we are going for common counselling under the Supreme Court guidelines, no college should be allowed to charge more than what others are charging,” he told the Tribune.