Telangana: Super-Speciality courses fee hiked to as much as Rs 25 lakh, aspirants in shock

According to the GO, the hike comes at the request of private unaided minority and non-minority colleges in Telangana, for Super Speciality PG courses in the face of "increased cost involved in imparting quality education escalation in costs and increase in university-related fees.."

Hyderabad: Super-speciality candidates have suddenly found themselves in a turmoil, after witnessing a substantial fee hike in medical colleges in the state of Telangana.

With the Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department (HM&WF) lending fee hike support to private medical colleges through Government Order (MS No 78) for super speciality courses both in the management and convener quota, the affected medical aspirants stand fazed in the face of uncertainty.

The fee has been hiked upto Rs 25 lakhs. Incidentally, The overlapping between the management and convenor quota costs has caused a furor in the student community.

"Colleges like Deccan College of Medical Sciences and Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences have already uploaded their fee as RS 25 lakh on the MCC counseling website. In addition, they are also not making a distinction between the management and convenor quota," the President, Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association, Dr K Mahesh Kumar told the New Indian Express.

The daily adds that the decision was taken without the consent of the Telangana State Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee, as is the norm. The worse aspect of this is that the government order is not available on the official website and the authorities have failed to provide the Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) a copy of the order. The justification given by HRDA for not providing a copy is - confidentiality.

Ironically, the fee for convenor quota also witnessed a hike from Rs 3.75 lakh, last year to 7.50 lakh. The figure was meant to be the management quota expense in the year gone by.

"No one contested it last year. But this year they cannot afford 25 lakh. The latest GO is being used to blanket even convenor seats as management. Also, issuing the GO without consulting the TAFRC is illegal and unconstitutional," said, Dr G Srinivas, General Secretary, HRDA,

The meritorious who secured seats on the basis of merit are now intending to give up seats in Telangana colleges and venture onto other states. Shanta Kumari, Principal Secretary, HM&HW has received an association appeal for cancellation of the GO and issuance of a notification reflecting convenor and management quota seats separately for the counselling on.

Dr B Karunakar Reddy, Vice Chancellor, KNRUHS, talking to TNIE stated: "KNRUHS has no role in the issue. AP had increased the fee last year so this year, on the representation of private colleges of Telangana, the government must have increased fee for them too. But, of the 150 seats in Super Speciality in PG, only 15 are in private colleges. So, the impact is not going to be much. The fee of government colleges is not affected."

According to the GO, the hike comes at the request of private unaided minority and non-minority colleges in Telangana, for Super Speciality PG courses. The government justifies its stand on the revision of tuition fee stating "increased cost involved in imparting quality education escalation in costs and increase in university-related fees.." has led to it.

The blunder involved seems to be the absence of separate counseling notifications for both quotas, allowing colleges to make no distinction between the two.

"I had submitted the joining report as soon as the first phase counselling was over. On Friday I got a message informing that the fee is Rs 25 lakh per year. Now I am clueless," said an aggrieved student to TOI. The student if withdraws would lose Rs 2 lakh as caution deposit added the daily

Another student alleged that officials were encouraging aspirants to drop out of the admission process. According to those affected this might be a way for private colleges to sell these seats at a higher fee if seats were vacant post the third phase of counseling.