Kerala SFMCs to conduct admissions on their own

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major setback to the present UDF Government, the Kerala Self Financing Medical College Managements Association, which entered into an agreement with the previous government, is backing out from the agreement and going for admissions to all MBBS seats in colleges under it from the entrance test being conducted by their consortium.The Managements' Association had entered into an agreement with the previous government even as the colleges under the Inter-Church Council had been admitting students to their colleges on their own. The colleges under the Inter-Church Council have also initiated their admission process this year.One of the concerns of the Association, according to sources, is that it is disadvantageous for them to have differential fees structure for various colleges. They were willing for an agreement with the government only if the colleges under the Inter-Church Council were also willing for a similar fees structure. This was the message given by the MES president, Fasal Gafoor, who is also the president of the Managements' Association, at a press conference in Kozhikode.The meeting of the Association held here on Friday decided to admit students to all the seats. The fees for all seats other than NRI quota seats will be Rs 3.5 lakh as approved by the High Court.Managements Association secretary Sajan Prasad told 'Express' that they are open to talks with the government. However, the different fees structure for different colleges were causing problems to the managements in a changed situation. Health Minister Adoor Prakash told reporters here that he had held unofficial talks with the managements. Sajan Prasad said that the Minister would have held talks with individual managements. However, no official talks were held with the Association. The managements had conducted admission to PG medical seats as the government had failed to provide the list of students to be admitted to 65 seats in government quota. The time limit for admission ended on May 31.Meanwhile, the government had appointed a subcommittee with Health Minister, Finance Minister K M Mani, Forest Minister K B Ganesh Kumar, Revenue Minister Tiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb to hold talks to resolve the self-financing professional college issue.Adoor Prakash told reporters that the subcommittee had also held talks with the InterChurch Council to resolve the issue.The Fee Regulatory Committee headed by P A Mohammed for professional colleges had earlier announced the fees structure for the selffinancing medical colleges of the state. The committee had recommended a fees of Rs 2,54,000 to 2,73,000 for three years after assessing the facilities of the colleges. However, the High Court, in an interim order, allowed five selffinancing medical colleges to collect Rs 3.5 lakh as annual tuition fees for MBBS.The High Court also stayed the Mohammed Committee's April 16 order which demanded the colleges to collect an annual minimum fees of Rs 2.54 lakh and an annual maximum fees of Rs 2.72 lakh. The colleges which got the High Court nod are MES at Kannur and Perinthalmanna, Karakkonam CSI, Kollam Azeezia and Travancore Medical College.