Telangana government follows AP, doubles PG medical seat fee

Hyderabad: The Telangana government will follow in the footsteps of the Andhra Pradesh government by steeply increasing fees for PG medical courses from this year.

The private colleges have been demanding a considerable  hike in fees for the last few days but the TS government has kept the issue pending, waiting for the AP government to take a decision first, since common counselling will be held for admissions in both states by NTRUHS.

The AP government took a decision to hike the fees recently. “There is a demand from private colleges to increase fees in both TS and AP. We have kept the issue pending since we had no clarity on what AP would decide. Since common counselling will be conducted for PG medical admissions in AP and TS this year, we need have uniform fees. AP hiked the fees this year, so we would be forced to do the same,” said Telangana medical and health minister C. Laxma Reddy.

MBBS graduates, who are aspiring for PG medical admissions, have been conducting various agitation for the past few days, demanding that the government not concede to the demands made by private medical colleges on the fee hike. They expressed concern that PG medical education would become unaffordable for middle and lower middle-income groups and that only the rich would be able to pursue higher studies.

The fees in merit quota (category-A) will be increased from Rs 3.20 lakh per year to Rs 6.90 lakh and for management quota seat (category-B) from Rs 5.25 lakh to Rs 24.20 lakh. The fees in NRI quota (category-C) will be increased to Rs 2.16 crore per year.

This would mean the students who secured admission in the PG course under convener quota would have to pay Rs 20.70 lakh, and the management quota students would have to pay Rs 72.20 lakh to complete the course.

The Opposition parties are strongly opposing the fee hike. Congress MLA Chall Vamshi Chand Reddy has written to CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao against the fee hike.

“Leave alone weaker sections, even middle and upper middle classses cannot afford to pursue PG medical courses,” he said.