VIJAYAWADA: MBBS doctors aspiring to get into PG courses staged a protest at NTR University of Health Sciences in Vijayawada on Monday. The aspirants protested a decision by private colleges to not accept admissions to PG medical and dental courses in the current academic year.
The announcement by private colleges had come after the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulation and Monitoring Commission (APHERMC) revised course fees by considering 2016-17 as the base year, instead of 2019-20.
As per the Section 9 of Act 5 of 1983, previous year should be considered as the base year for fixing the fees for block periods.
However, officials from the commission said the previous government had fixed the fees, which were abnormally high, for the block period of 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
“Fees were increased unreasonably in 2017-18. For instance, management quota fee was hiked from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 26 lakh. Not the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC), but the then government revised the figures by consulting college managements. We decided to consider 2016-17 as the base year for the sake of students. A maximum of 10 per cent of fees will be increased each year,” said commission secretary Rajshekhar.
Despite the NTRUHS, under the directive of the commission, instructing all private colleges and Private Medical and Dental Colleges’ Association that legal action will be taken against them under Section 9 of Act 5 of 1983, the colleges went ahead with their decision to deny admissions this year.
The protesting candidates demanded that the commission and the government hold talks with the colleges and ensure that their seats, which they had already secured by clearing entrance exams, were not taken away.
“We studied a lot for the entrance exams and do not want our efforts to be wasted. We are on COVID-19 duty and it is sad that we have to fight for admissions even when there is a health emergency,” said one of the aspirants.
They have decided to gather on the premises in a group of 30-40 every day as they are on COVID-19 duty; five of them will go on hunger strike every day till their demands are met.