Admit govt school students without fees, DME tells self-financing colleges

Directing the deans of all self-financing medical and dental colleges that these students should not be denied admission for payment of fees at any cost, Dr R Narayana Babu, Director of Medical Education, said in the letter that post-matric and other financial aid would be appropriately taken care of as announced by the government.

“We have instructed all the institutions to admit government school students without insisting on fees. If any student is denied admission [for this reason], colleges are asked to call her/him back and grant admission. No student can be denied admission based on this regulation,” he said.

The 405 MBBS and BDS seats allocated for government school students under the 7.5 per cent quota included 86 seats in 15 private institutions, which charge a much higher amount when compared to government colleges. Due to this, many families had said they would not be able to send the children to these colleges.

In a related development, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday issued notices to Health Secretary, Medical Education Director, fee fixation committee for self-financing institutions and others following a plea seeking to reduce fee applicable for government students’ quota applicants. The bench express anguish over the situation where students are unable to avail the benefit despite being allotted seats for want of money for fees.

On the third day of counselling for government school students, 12 BDS seats in government colleges and 74 out of 80 total seats in the self-financing category were filled on Friday. Now, there are only six vacancies remaining, all in the self-financing category.

From Chennai, 26 candidates were accepted into MBBS and BDS courses under the quota. Of them, 23 obtained MBBS admission – 18 in government colleges and 5 self-financing.

The MBBS and BDS counselling under the special category would begin on Saturday for students with disability, children of sportspersons, and children of servicemen. Counselling for general counselling would begin on Monday, and is expected to go on till December 4 except Sundays.