Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday, April 21, ruled out a further reduction in fees for 1,583 students of Government Cuddalore Medical College in Chidambaram who were admitted to the college before it was made into a government medical college in February last year.
Replying to the demand of the members of the AIADMK, Congress, PMK and CPI that the fees for these students should be collected on par with other government medical colleges, the minister told the Assembly that the fees were already reduced to the tune of Rs 119 crore and a further reduction as demanded by the students would cost an additional expenditure of Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer. He clarified that the students who joined after it was made a government college have been paying the fees on par with other government colleges in the state.
Ma Subramanian said that agreeing to any further reduction in fees would set a bad precedent as it would be an injustice to the students who did not join the course because of the high fees structure. Besides, the State Government had accepted another demand of the interns of this college and agreed to pay Rs 16 crore towards stipends, the minister pointed out.
Since last year, the students of the college who joined the course before February 2021, have been staging demonstrations demanding the reduction of the fees structure. The students, while joining the college agreed to pay Rs 5,44,370 for MBBS and Rs 3,54,000 for the BDS course. However, they demanded that the fee should be reduced since the college has been converted into a government college.
During the demonstrations, the opposition leaders, including Udhayanidhi Stalin had promised them that the DMK would help them when it comes to power. After the DMK government assumed office, the students met Chief Minister MK Stalin and Udhayanidhi Stalin.
Even after the High Court and Supreme Court ruled that the fees should not be waived, on instructions from the Chief Minister, the fees were reduced from Rs 5.44 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for the academic years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 for UG and PG medical students, the minister said. Similarly, the fees were reduced from Rs 3.45 lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh for the academic years 2017-18 and 2018-19 for BDS students. Orders in this regard were issued on October 26, 2021, he added.
