Tirupati: Fate of over 300 PG medical students hangs in balance

Tirupati: The fate of more than 300 PG medical aspirants hangs in balance as private colleges refuse to admit them citing the cut in fee from this academic year by the government.

Having qualified in NEET and securing eligibility to get seats under categories A and B in private colleges, they are now sandwiched between government, university and private managements. Dr NTR University of Health Sciences has issued allotment orders to these candidates on June 1 based on their options and asked them to report at their allotted colleges by June 4 and pay the required fee or else they have to forego their seat. But, on Wednesday, following the appeals by the students the university has extended the reporting date to June 10.

Simultaneously, the AP Private Medical and Dental Colleges Management Association has resolved not to fill up seats in Post Graduate medical and dental courses for the year 2020-21 claiming that they were not consulted by the government before deciding the fee structure for the years 2020-21 to 2022-23 recommended by the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC).

Accordingly, they took unanimous decision to withdraw from the university's counselling process for admissions for this year saying that it was communicated to the government and university.

In a public notice on June 1, they asked the parents and students not to exercise any options for admission into their member colleges. However, students who have given their options were allotted seats in various private colleges who refuse to accept these allotments pushing the aspirants into dismay.

The students are expressing severe anxiety over their future. "Colleges are bluntly denying giving admission though the deadline is nearing. University officials asked us to send mails about the problem along with the copy of the allotment letters and a letter from respective private colleges about their objection which they could not give. The government should step in now to resolve this imbroglio immediately as our future is at stake," said one aspirant.

It may be noted that AFRC has recommended the new fee structure effecting some hike from 2016. In 2017, the then government has increased the fee bypassing AFRC recommended fee at the behest of private colleges.

However, the present AFRC ignored the government order of 2017 and considered only 2016 fee structure. The private medical and dental colleges could not digest this as they are not willing to get lower fee than that they were collecting for the last three years.