BENGALURU: Medical Education Minister D K Shivakumar’s statement on revision of fee in government medical colleges has created confusion among students.
The government had increased MBBS course fee in state-run medical colleges from Rs 16,400 to Rs 50,000 during the admissions for the current academic year. Now the statement by the minister during the ongoing legislature session that the government is considering raising the fee in state-run medical colleges from Rs 17,000 toRs 50,000 has left the student wondering if there would be another hike.
According to students who got admissions to government medical colleges for the 2018-19 academic year, they paid Rs 59,000 of which Rs 50000 was the annual course fee and the rest was university fee.
Documents available with TNIE show that the order increasing the fee at government medical colleges by 200 per cent was issued on May 26, 2018. The same was communicated to the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) which is the admission agency. “As per the directions from the government, we have collected Rs 50,000 for MBBS course at government medical colleges,” said a senior KEA official.
When contacted, the then Director of Medical Education Department, Dr Sachidanand, said, “Yes, the fee was increased. And for postgraduate courses, the government is considering now. This is what minister meant.”Meanwhile, officials of the department said while drafting answers for questions in the legislative session, the officers in charge were confused and it was not intentional.
Minister’s gaffe
The medical education minister stated that the government is trying to conduct the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in Kannada too. Apparently, the minister was not aware of the fact that Kannada is one of the regional languages included in NEET two years ago. In NEET 2018, over 800 candidates took NEET in Kannada.