The Telangana state government has cleared a long pending demand seeking permission allowing private medical colleges in the state to conduct a separate entrance test for admissions to MBBS seats in private medical colleges under private and management quotas. At the same time the state government has also allowed the private medical colleges to hike fees from Rs.2.4 lakhs to Rs.9 lakhs to B category seats in all the private medical colleges from the 2015-16 academic year going to begin in June.

The MBBS seats in the state are categorised as A, B and C based on government, private and management quotas respectively. The state government had stipulated a particular fee structure to each category. The fees for MBBS seats in government medical colleges is not changed, while 10 per cent of B category seats in private medical colleges has increased from this academic year.

With the state government approving the proposal, detailed orders are expected to be released soon. “As the state government has agreed to allow private medical colleges conduct separate medical admission tests, it will allow all them to fill about 35 per cent of medical under B category and management quota,” said a senior official in the Medical and health education department.

There are altogether 13 medical colleges in both government and private sectors in Telangana having 2950 MBBS seats in all. Out of which 5 colleges are under government sector and 8 medical colleges are under private managements. The 35 per cent of MBBS seats for which the private managements are allowed to conduct a separate test constitute 10 per cent under B category in private medical colleges and the remaining 25 per cent under C1 quota which comes under management category seats. For all these seats, the government has also given a green signal to increase the fees. This means about 210 seats under B category will have an annual fee of Rs.9 lakhs which is a huge burden on the students and the parents. “This has increased a huge burden on the middle class and upper middle class people who want to secure a seat under private quota. Earlier we could manage to get loans for B category seats, but with Rs.9 lakh fees annually, it amounts Rs.45 lakhs by the time a student completes his MBBS education. With limited incomes and no option for even going to loans this fee structure completely blocks the middle class and upper middle class to look for private quota,” said a parent.