Govt-management talks on fees at Ujjain medical college

Bhopal, May 18 (UNI) Medical Education Minister Gauri Shanker Shejwar today announced in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly that the government would hold talks with the management of Ujjain's R D Gardi Medical College for reducing fees charged from students who took admission in 2005.

Mr Shejwar gave this assurance after repeated prompting by Speaker Ishwardas Rohani upon persistent demand by Dr Sajjan Singh Verma and other Congress members, who raised the issue through a call attention notice. ''It is incorrect to say that the fee was abruptly raised by Rs 80,000 annually'', he said The minister was hesitant to reconsider the issue saying the Fees Fixation Committee had fixed the fees on the Supreme Court directive. The students, who were initially charged Rs 1.61 lakh as annual tution fees, gave an undertaking to pay the difference if a higher fees was fixed.

The students were charged higher fees on the basis of the undertaking they had given while taking admission, the minister justified, adding the committee fixed Rs 2.80 lakh as annual fee to be levied from students enrolled in 2006 and 2007. The management, later, agreed to charge Rs 2.26 lakh from 2006 batch students and Rs 2.42 lakh from 2007 batch students.

Dr Verma and Mr Rajnaryan Singh claimed the medical students were on hunger strike as many poor students could not afford steep hike in tution fees from back date.

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