Medical college fee: Govt announces only 10 % hike

HYDERABAD: The state governmentannounced a meagre 10 per cent increase in fee for A and B category seats ormerit seats of both private medical and dental colleges in the state here onTuesday. But the fee for management quota or C category was hiked by a whopping40 per cent.According to the government order issued by thedepartment of health, medical and family welfare, the fee for A category seatsin medical colleges will be Rs 60,000 per annum. The fee for B category will beRs 2,40,000 and for C category seats or management quota seats the fee will beRs 5,50,000.According to a recent decision, 50 per cent of the totalnumber of seats belong to A category, 10 per cent belong to B category and 40per cent belong to C category.The state government followed the samepattern of fee structure for dental seats which marked a 10 per cent hike in Aand B category fee and a 40 per cent hike in C category fee. According toorders, the fee for A category in dental colleges will be Rs 45,000 and for Bcategory it will be Rs 1,30,000 and for C category it will be Rs 2,50,000. Thefee structure of these courses will be revised only after three academicyears.Medical aspirants and their parents welcomed the new feestructure as not much of a hike was imposed on them. "The fact that fee for Acategory was increased from Rs 55,000 to Rs 65,000 has come as a relief for manystudents who were expecting a steep rise of medical college fee," a parentsaid.However, the state's decision has not gone well with medicaland dental college managements which have threatened for a non-cooperationduring counselling which is scheduled to begin from July 26.The representatives of AP Private Medical and Dental College Managements Association expressed their displeasure at the fee structure stating that they will not admit students if the state government does not increase the prescribed fee structure."The fee structure for medical colleges have remained the same since the year 2003. The state government should realise that the expenditure on maintenance of colleges is increasing by the year. We need higher fee to run colleges," said Puvvada Ajay Kumar, president, AP Private Medical and Dental College Managements' Association. Private medical colleges have 4,000 seats in 19 colleges while the state government's share is less than 1,500 seats."If we refuse to take part in counselling, medical education for this academic year will go for a toss. The state government should increase the fee before the managements go on strike," Ajay Kumar said.Themedical college managements had asked for a fee of Rs 1 lakh for A category, Rs3 lakh for B category and Rs 6 lakh for C categoryseats.