(a) whether the Government are aware that the Medical Colleges in the country are charging exorbitant capitation fees from the students;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether it is also a fact that the deserving students, who cannot afford the capitation fees, are not getting admission in medical colleges; and
(d) if so, the action taken by the Union Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (DR. C.P. THAKUR)
(a)to(d) A statement is laid on the table of the Lok Sabha.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 254 FOR 20.3.2002
With a view to prevent the commmercialisation of medical colleges, and also to prevent private medical colleges from charging capitation fees, the Supreme Court of India in the case of Unnikrishnan J.P. Versus State, evolved a scheme for regulating admissions in private medical colleges. As per the scheme, 50% of the total seats are to be merit seats, 35% are payment seats and the remaining 15% are seats earmarked for NRI/Foreign students in all the private medical colleges, except for minority colleges. The admission to the first two categories i.e. merit and payment seats is to be made by the competent authority in the respective States, on the basis of merit to be determined either on the basis of a competitive entrance test or on the basis of the merit determined in the qualifying examination. In minority medical colleges, 50% seats are filled through the competent authority of the respective State Government and remaining 50% are filled by the management on the basis of merit amongst the candidates belonging to the concerned minority. Since merit is the sole criteria for obtaining admissions, hard-working and meritorious students have benefitted by the scheme evolved by the Supreme Court. As regards the fee structure, this had been fixed by the Supreme Court for the period 1993-94 to 1996-97. Subsequently, the Central Government has been fixing the upper ceiling of fee for merit and payment seats in private medical colleges and within this upper ceiling, the fees in each medical college is being fixed by the respective State Government. No fee has, however, been prescribed by the Central Government for 15% seats earmarked for NRI/Foreign students.