Uttarakhand: Medical college fee issue raised in LS by Haridwar MP

Dehradun: The demand for monitoring of medical fee in the Lok Sabha was raised by Haridwar MP, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Friday.

Responding to questions in the Lok Sabha the Minister of state for Health and Family Welfare, Faggan Singh Kulaste, elucidated that private medical college fee was to be decided upon by a Committee set up by the respective state governments, with a retired High Court Judge heading it as Chairman. In the case of Government Medical Colleges, he said the respective state governments were to take the onus of fee fixation.

“It is for the committee to decide if the fee proposed by a college is justified,” Kulaste replied.

Nishank expressing concern over exploitation of students at the hands of private medical colleges and universities, queried whether any checks and balances were being observed on the two bodies for charging arbitrary sums- for fee. He also wondered whether any public awareness program had been initiated to check student exploitation, in the area of fee.

Kulaste highlighting government measures, in this regard said the Supreme Court in its order dated May 9, had directed the students to submit fee demand drafts to the Counselling Committee.

“The admission details are sent to Medical Council of India (MCI) after counselling. The MCI scrutinizes the details and issues discharge notices if students are admitted to the medical colleges in violation of regulations,” Kulaste added to the TOI.

The MCI website carries both student advisories and course details as well.