Maharashtra State cracks whip, to regulate fees for private institutions

By Vikas Vaidya

Coming down heavily on private unaided educational institutions in State, Maharashtra Government has decided to constitute Comprehensive Fee Regulatory Authority to regulate fees for recognised professional courses run by these institutions, to prevent profiteering.
State Cabinet took a decision in its meeting held on Tuesday, to implement the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission Fees) Act, 2015, the draft of which was pending for past few years. The Cabinet decided to issue an ordinance in this regard during Monsoon Session of State Legislature, which will start after commencement of the academic year 2015-16. The ordinance will spell out appropriate fee structure for professional courses, thereby curbing profiteering.
The Government has made it clear that the Supreme Court had directed to enact the law in this regard many years ago, but it could not be enacted as ‘education barons’ dominated in Maharashtra. According to Vinod Tawde, Higher and Technical Education Minister, the Government wanted to enact the law in the legislature, but it had decided to take ordinance route considering that the admission process for new academic session would begin shortly.
With the Government’s move, there will be only one Common Entrance Test (CET) to be conducted by the Government. Private institutions will not be allowed to hold their own CETs. Dr Kamal Kishore Kadam, President of The Association of Managements of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges, Maharashtra (AMUPMDC), dubbed the move as ‘unjustifiable’.
As per the Cabinet decision, private colleges running courses in medical, agriculture, higher education, technical education, will have to display fees on the notice board. Further, the course fee will remain the same till the completion of the course. The colleges will not be allowed to collect fees for more than one year. The competent authority headed by a retired judge of the High Court will not only regulate the fees hike but also supervise the common admission process. The authority/committee will have a Chartered Accountant, ex-Vice Chancellor of a university, Vice-Chancellor of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Director of Technical Education and expert from Finance Department.
Even the institutional quota will be filled through merit only, under the supervision of the authority. If an institution provides fake information, the top management/director/owner of such a private institution may be booked and imprisoned for a period ranging from six months to two years.
At present, fees of these professional institutions are currently being looked after by Shulk Niyantran Samiti (fee control committee). Parents and NGOs have been alleging that the Samiti had failed in its mandate.

Colleges will have to

follow SC/ST quotas

The colleges will have to follow SC/ST quotas as specified under Maharashtra Private Professional Educational Institutions (Reservation of Seats for Admission for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 2006.

Minority colleges will

be under scanner

Minority colleges will have to admit at least 51 per cent students from minority category. The seats remaining vacant will have to be surrendered to the competent authority that will first offer them to minorities, and then to general candidates on merit as per their admission test scores. If an institution fails to admit a minimum 51 per cent of its sanctioned intake from the persons belonging to a minority concerned, for three consecutive years, such institution shall be liable for action under section 12C of National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004. The ordinance also has a provision to nullify irregular admissions and penalise the institutions.

Parents, students bodies

welcome Govt move

Students and parents have welcomed the Government move to seek regulation of fee-structure and admission process through comprehensive ordinance. Jayant Jain, President of the Forum for Fairness in Education, said, “This was much awaited as most colleges have been enjoying all kinds of immunity due to political support. A majority of professional colleges are owned or backed by politicians, which has reportedly refrained the Governments of the State from making any law against them.”

Pvt unaided medical, dental

colleges have 35,000 intake

Maharashtra has 27 unaided medical and dental colleges with over 5,000 seats for MBBS, BDS, BSc nursing and other paramedical courses. More than 35,000 candidates from across the country compete in Associate-CET exam conducted jointly by these colleges annually. At present, the asking capitation rate for an MBBS undergraduate seat is Rs 30-50 lakh. For post-graduate medical seats, the rate is between Rs 75 lakh and Rs 2 crore, depending upon the speciality. In addition, students need to pay annual fee.

Govt’s move unjustifiable, says Dr Kadam

Dr Kamal Kishore Kadam, President of The Association of Managements of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges, Maharashtra (AMUPMDC), dubbed the move as ‘unjustifiable’. According to him, in 2002, 11-judge bench of Supreme Court had made it clear that there would be no Government control on educational institutions. SC had observed that fees would be decided by institution, but there should not be any profiteering. Admission rights will be vested with the institutions. “All this has been reversed by the ordinance. In Government Medical Colleges, Government spends Rs 25 lakh per student and asks private colleges to charge only Rs 3.5 lakh fees which is unreasonable. SC judgment had then referred Dr Radhakrishnan who had said that educational institutions should be away from political interference. Maharashtra Government’s move is unjustifiable. All our members will meet soon to decide next course of action. If needed, we may move to Court,” he said.