Kerala government, Youth Congress stick to stand on medical fee

Thiruvananthapuram: Youth Congress will intensify its ongoing stir against the government stand on fees of self-financing medical colleges as the talks held between minister for health K.K. Shylaja and Youth Congress leaders remained inconclusive. The Youth Congress insisted on scrapping the agreement between the government and self-financing managements to reduce the fees; however, the government maintained that no alterations were possible.

The government had promised to hold talks with the Youth Congress leaders on the increased fees for medical seats in self-financing colleges after the Opposition launched a stir in the Assembly  by shouting slogans and  entering the well of the House. While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan warned of stern action against self-financing colleges against  sabotage of admissions from the merit list of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that the LDF government had paved the way for massive corruption in medical admissions.

The House also witnessed noisy scenes after Health Minister K.K. Shailaja Teacher alleged that many UDF leaders had availed of medical seats at reduced rates during the last five years. Replying to an adjournment motion on the medical seat fee issue moved by former health minister V.S. Sivakumar, the minister said that as a result of the LDF government’s initiatives,  the number of merit seats had increased from 750 to 1,150 this year.

The Opposition, however, criticised the government for increasing the fees. “While the fee in merit seats was increased by Rs. 47,000 over the five years of UDF tenure, the LDF government made a steep hike of Rs 65,000 during its first year itself,” said  Mr  Sivakumar. While replying to the Opposition’s charges, the minister said that she had a list of UDF leaders’ children who studied in self-financing colleges availing of fee concessions.

This triggered noisy scenes from the Opposition benches and Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan even demanded that the minister should either clarify or the speaker should expunge the statement  from the Assembly records. Speaker P. Sreeramakrishan promised  to look into the matter. After the speaker denied permission for the adjournment motion, the Opposition Leader called for a stir by the UDF  MLAs in the House.

They subsequently trooped into the well of the House shouting slogans. This forced the speaker to suspend the House for about 45 minutes and hold talks with all parliamentary party leaders. Later, when the House reconvened, the chief minister announced the government decision to hold talks with the agitating Youth Congress activists.

Mani walks out
The Kerala Congress (M), on its first day in the Assembly after severing its ties with the UDF,  joined issue with the UDF in a way on the medical seat fee hike issue. While the Opposition called for a stir in the House, KC(M) leader K.M.  Mani called for a walkout of his party from the House in protest  against  the fee hike. A separate bloc was allotted to the KC (M) on Monday with Mr Mani retaining  a seat on the front row, flanked by former chief minister Oommen Chandy and BJP leader O. Rajagopal.