Chandigarh, July 13
The Punjab government has slashed the admission fee and other charges by 16.74 per cent for students to be admitted against special management quota seats in medical, dental and ayurvedic colleges.
Claiming this, Dr Zora Singh, secretary general of the Punjab Private Medical, Dental and Ayurvedic Colleges Association, told The Tribune this evening that a copy of the notification in this regard had been received from the state government by the colleges.
There are four categories against which candidates are admitted in private medical, dental and other such colleges. These quota seats are from government, management, NRI and special management categories. The seats remaining vacant in the NRI quota are converted to special management quota seats.
Zora Singh, who is also president of the Chandigarh Chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), said with the slashing of the admission fee by 16.74 per cent, the annual charges would come down by Rs 77,000 in case of dental colleges for students admitted against special management quota seats and Rs 1.09 lakh in case of students admitted to the MBBS course against these seats. At present, the annual charges for admission against special management quota seats in dental colleges are Rs 4.60 lakh per annum and Rs 6.50 lakh per annum in case of medical colleges.
However, there is no confirmation of slashing of the fee by government officials concerned.
Students and their wards have been urging the state government to further slash the admission charges in private medical, dental and other such colleges. Recently, the issue was raised by Lok Sabha member Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had urged the state government to make a drastic cut in fees and other charges. However, the government has reduced the charges only in case of special management quota seats. Parents have also been urging that the vacant NRI seats should be added to the government or general management quota seats.
