Parents seek cut in fees, move Shah committee

The parents' association of students studying in self-financed medical and dental colleges has approached the R J Shah committee seeking revision of fees.

The parents' association complained of the poor infrastructure facilities in self-financed colleges in relation to the fees charged.

The body demanded that such colleges charge fee at the rate of Rs 95,000 per annum. This is the figure fixed by the state government as expenditure incurred per year on medical students.

According to state government figures, while the fee for a course in medicine from a government college is Rs 95,000, self-financed medical colleges charge almost thrice the amount. They do not also provide facilities like government colleges.

Self-financed colleges charge around Rs 3 lakh per annum as fees for a course in medicine, Rs 2.5 lakh for dentistry, Rs 90,000 for physiotherapy, Rs 50,000 for homeopathy and Rs 45,000 for pharmacy.

In its verdict in the T M A Pai case, the Supreme Court had directed state governments to form a high level committee for fixing the fee structure of the self financed institutes.

The Gujarat government set up a committee of experts in the field of education, headed by retired Gujarat High Court judge R J Shah, in September last year.

The committee is expected to give its recommendation before the new academic session begins. The committee has asked self-financed institutes to furnish audited results of the last three years, along with form 24 and 26K, by March 31 this year to get details of the profit, income tax and TDS. However, none of the self-financed institutes have furnished the details so far.

"The government has appointed the committee recently to save its image before the elections, while the committee will look into irregularities of medical and dental self-financed institutes, other self-financed institutes engaged in technical education like MBA, MCA, architecture and others are left out, who also charge exorbitant andunrealistic fee," said Manish Doshi, general secretary, Gujarat State Youth Congress.

The self-financed colleges in the state include NHL Medical College, Ahmedabad, Surat Medical College, Karamsad Medical College, C U Shah Medical College in Surendranagar, Waghodia Dental College and Mahadevia Dental College.