The Kerala Cabinet on Wednesday decided to fix the fee in self-financing medical colleges at Rs. 1.76 lakh a year.

The Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, told presspersons that the Cabinet had approved the recommendations of the Committee of Government Secretaries in this regard. The managements would not be allowed to collect any other fee from students admitted on merit. (Last year, the Government had suggested a fee of Rs. 1.5 lakh a year).

The Chief Minister said the Government stood by its stand that admissions to 50 per cent of the seats in private medical colleges should be on merit. The proposed Universities Bill would have provision for enforcing this.

He said that the All India Medical Council had issued guidelines regarding admissions and this too gave the Government powers to fix the quotas.

Antony said the Cabinet had asked the Chief Secretary to hold discussions with the employees' organisations on the recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Committee regarding the formation of a Kerala Civil Service and related matters. The Cabinet would take a decision on the recommendations only after this.

The Cabinet, the Chief Minister said, decided to allocate Rs. 1.90 crore for fighting the spread of Dengue fever. Urgent steps would be taken to prevent accumulation of waste in towns and cities with the cooperation of local self- Governments.