PMK founder S. Ramadoss on Friday, urged the Tamil Nadu government to issue an order stating that the fee in 50% of seats in private medical colleges should be on par with fees in the government medical colleges, as per the recent guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The NMC has said the fee in 50% of seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities should be on par with government medical colleges. The benefit of this fee structure would be first made available to candidates who have availed of government quota seats, but will be limited to 50% of the total sanctioned strength of the respective private medical college/deemed university, he noted in a statement.
However, if the government quota seats are less than 50% of the total sanctioned seats, the remaining candidates would avail of the benefit of fees equivalent to the government medical college fees, based purely on the merit, Mr. Ramadoss said.
Welcoming the guidelines, he said it would benefit students from poor backgrounds and the State government should not hesitate to implement this in private medical colleges in the State.
Mr. Ramadoss pointed out that private medical colleges collect a fee of ₹3.85 lakh to ₹4.15 lakh annually for government quota seats, while the fees at government medical colleges is only ₹13,610.
He also stressed that it was more important to implement the guidelines at deemed universities which collect fees of ₹20-25 lakhs annually.
However, Mr. Ramadoss said the admission process and fee determination in deemed universities is overseen by the Centre and the State government should discuss the issue with the Centre and issue a clear order regarding deemed universities.
‘Drop plan of ‘Away From Reactor’ at Kudankulam premises’
In a separate statement, PMK youth wing leader Anbumani Ramadoss on Friday urged the Centre to drop its plan of setting up an ‘Away From Reactor’ (AFR) facility to store the spent fuel of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project’s reactors 3 and 4 on the same premises, and withdraw the tenders issued in this regard.
In a Twitter post, he warned that having the AFR facility at the same premises would be a big danger for Southern Tamil Nadu.
He said despite a clear Supreme Court verdict, the move to set up the AFR facility within the premises was condemnable.
