The students of Government Erode Medical College met with the Tamil Nadu Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan about charging their fees on par with a regular government college. The students claimed that they had been assured that a GO in their favour would be passed by the end of the week.
"Our representative met with the Health Secretary in-person to brief him about the struggles that the students are facing because of the exorbitant fees being levied on us. He told us that by Friday, the government will issue a government order. In fact, he said we could stay in Chennai till we receive it and directly go to college. So we trust that it will work out for us," a student said.
The students have been protesting on and off since 2019 against the administration's set fee structure. After Rajah Muthiah Medical College recently successfully protested for 58 days to get their fees reduced to match government colleges, the Erode medicos decided to launch their own protest on February 5. Both the colleges were previously self-financing colleges that were converted to government colleges, however, they were still being charged fees of a self-financing institute.
The Erode Medical College was previously the IRT Perundurai College. The Institute of Road and Transport Perundurai Medical College was established in 1992 and as the name suggests was established under the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation - this meant that 30 percent of the seats were allotted to children of Transport employees. Then when the government decided to take the college under its wing in 2018, it moved the college from the Transport department to the Health and Family Welfare Department. In the Government Order, it is stated that the college was being handed over to the Department since the State Transport Undertaking is extremely weak and that they are now unable to contribute effectively to the ongoing expenditure of the institute.
However, because of the confusion over the reservation norms, the College administration was insisting on high fees. But when RMMCH launched their protest, they also urged the government to intervene in Erode Medical College issue as well. The students felt encouraged by RMMCH's success, "We are glad with the government's response. We are not protesting anymore but we are still continuing to sit near the building. When we get the GO we will resume classes," a student said.
