Charging extra fees for PG medical is illegal: Fee Regulating Authority
By Vikas Vaidya
Coming heavily on the medical colleges in Maharashtra, Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) has warned private medical colleges that charging extra fees than the approved one would be termed as illegal.
Actually, FRA has already relaxed the conditions with regards to fees being charged for the seats under Non-Resident Indian (NRI) and the institutional one, than the one fixed by the Authority. Colleges only have to declare the fees prior on their websites.
Private professional medical colleges and other institutions are charging the fees in multiples of the regular fees approved by the FRA from the students admitted under the quota of NRI and institutional one. This issue was discussed in the meeting of FRA chaired by Justice M N Gilani who is Chairperson of FRA.
FRA through a clarification has made it clear that it received lot of complaints mainly from Post Graduate students of medical course that the management was demanding higher fees than the fees approved by FRA. The complaint is to the effect that in addition to the fees approved by this authority, the management is demanding extra fee on account of expenditure incurred towards payment of stipend. For example, if the fee declared by FRA for MD/MS is Rs 10,00,000, the management is asking the student to deposit Rs 10,00,000 plus Rs 6,00,000 (stipend).
The Chairperson of FRA has clarified that the management demanding any amount of extra fee on account of stipend that the fees approved by FRA is illegal and contrary to the provision of Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulations of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015. In a tersely written letter, FRA has asked managements to desist from such practice. FRA has informed students that in case of such demand from any college, they can directly approach the authority and need not to pay any extra fees.
The committee observed that they did not see any legal hurdle in approving ongoing practice of institutions imparting health science courses, applying different fee structures for the students admitted against NRI and institutional quotas.
Discovering the right private medical college without breaking the bank can be challenging. private medical colleges with low fee structure We guide students towards private medical institutions with low fee structures. Elevate your medical journey without the financial stress.
ReplyDelete