Steep hike in PG Medicine fees in Telangana

Hyderabad: PG Medicine study in Telangana is set to get dearer as the government has increased steep hike in tuition fees for the next three years in private medical colleges in the state.

The category-A fee for clinical degrees and diplomas will be in the range of Rs 7 lakh to 7.5 lakh per year while for category-B it is either 23 or 24 lakh while for category-C the fee is three times of the category-B. A GO to this effect was issued by the Health department.

Actually, the same fee structure was decided by the Health department in 2017 but doctors challenged it in the court stating that due process of appointing the Admission Fee Regulatory Commission was not done and hence it should not be implemented.

Meanwhile, Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) stated that the fee hike was exorbitant and it will contemplate challenging it in court by taking legal opinion.

According to the association president Dr Mahesh Kumar, the new fee hike GO issued by the State government will be applicable for block period 2020-23.

"So the new fee structure will be applicable from 2020-21 batch. The fees pertaining to 2017-18, 2018-19 & 2019-20 is still pending in High Court.

The new GO issued by the govt of Telangana seems to be issued with recommendations of TAFRC. But still the fee hiked is very high," he said.

Meanwhile, members of the Private Medical Colleges Association stated that the fee structure announced now was the same that was decided in 2017, but was not implemented due to legal hassles.

AFRC has asked all colleges to submit their expenditure, faculty salaries and other expenses being incurred after which this fee structure was decided. It is almost the same fee structure decided three years ago, they said.