The private medical college managements in Andhra Pradesh have agreed not to hike fee structure for the current academic year 2013-14, provided the state government do not interfere with the admission procedure of management quota seats in the state.

To this effect the state government has released an order indicating no fee hike for the current academic year. With this the students aspiring for admissions into medical and dental colleges have been relieved but it has come at the cost of students seeking admissions through management quota, who will have to shell out lakhs of rupees as there is not transparent admission procedure in place.

Earlier, the state government had asked to streamline the procedure for admissions to medical colleges under management quota and had planned to introduce online system. Realizing this the private medical college managements have pressurised the government and demanded a hike in the fee structures for the medical seats.

In view of this the state government held meeting with the private college managements and both the parties have reached at a mutual understanding that the private colleges will not hike their fee structure at least for the block period of three years, while at the same time the government should not interfere with the admission procedure of medical seats under private management quota seats.

But in view of MCI’s directive to the state government for ensuring transparent admission procedure for management quota seats, this recent government decision not to interfere with admission of management quota seats is contradicting its own earlier claim of ensuring transparency. On the whole, the general students are the ultimate beneficiaries at large in the entire drama.

Sources revealed that all the MBBS seats will be offered in three categories. Category-A (50 per cent seat) will be filled based on merit secured in Eamcet for a fees of Rs.60,000 per annum. Category-B (10 per cent seats) will also be filled based on merit secured in Eamcet, but for a fees of Rs.2.40 lakh per annum.

The management quota seats are categorised as C-Cagetory and every private college will have at least 40 seats as their quota. According to government norms these seats will have a fee of Rs.5.5 lakhs per year, but they are sold for anything between Rs.25-50 lakhs by the managements.