Maharashtra : 50% of fees paid by medical students to be refunded

This means that 50% fees of the students whose annual family income is between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh will be reimbursed by the state government in their respective Aadhaar-seeded bank account.

Chaitanya Deshpande ,
TNN

Updated On Apr 19, 2018 at 08:07 AM IST

<p>Tamil Nadu health department said it will add 101 postgraduate medical seats across 14 government medical colleges during the 2018 admission season, taking the total PG seats in the state to 1,585.</p> — Tamil Nadu health department said it will add 101 postgraduate medical seats across 14 government medical colleges during the 2018 admission season, taking the total PG seats in the state to 1,585.

Medical students from the non creamy layer economically backward class (EBC) families are set to get 50% of their fees reimbursed from 2018-19 academic session under the state government’s Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj EBC scholarship scheme.

This means that 50% fees of the students whose annual family income is between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh will be reimbursed by the state government in their respective Aadhaar-seeded bank account. Earlier, the government would reimburse only the amount of interest on the education loan taken by MBBS and BDS students. The government has made it clear that the practice of paying interest on education loan for these courses will come to an end from the next academic session. The Maratha community, which has taken to the streets in the past, had pushed the government to reimburse the fees instead of only the interest amount.

The government decision will be applicable even for students pursuing MBBS and BDS in private unaided colleges and universities.

However, students enrolled under the management quota or studying in self-financed or private autonomous universities won’t be entitled to this benefit. A senior official of the management council of Maharashtra University of Health Sciences said the fees of MBBS and BDS defer from college to college. The dental course fees range from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 20 lakh for three years.

“Average fee for one year of MBBS is Rs 55,000 and above. In some well-known private colleges, the fee extend up to Rs 1.5 lakh per year. The MBBS course is of four-and-ahalf years,” said the official.

As per the Medical Council of India, there are 7,270 seats available in Maharashtra for MBBS. These include 2,960 seats in government colleges, 1,920 seats in private colleges and the remaining 2,390 seats are from deemed universities and self-funded institutions.

The number of BDS seats in government dental colleges for the year 2017-18 is 260, while there are 2,300 seats in private dental colleges. The decision will not only benefit students getting admissions in the academic year 2018-19 but also help those already pursuing the courses.