Telangana: Complaint filed against private medical colleges for charging excess fees from PG students

The Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, have registered a complaint. This complaint was against the excess fees, of up to Rs 50,000, being charged in the name of labs, libraries and sports fees. These are being collected in excess by private medical colleges in Telangana and this is against the fees fixed by Telangana Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC), according to the complaint filed by the doctors' associations, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

In a letter addressed to the Chairman of TAFRC, HRDA (Human Resources Development Authority) accused private medical colleges of forcing postgraduate students to open fictitious bank accounts in their names. Stipends are credited by colleges themselves in these accounts so that they can be shown during inspections and then later credited back to the source account. The letter further stated that, “These transactions are being used in annual audits for hiking the fees for the next block period which is illegal and accounts to similar lines of money laundering fraud,” stated a report by The New Indian Express.

Unfortunately, the students and their parents are unwilling to report the problem out of concern that they will be singled out and suffer academic failure. The doctors of HRDA have asked that the aforementioned issues be looked into and appropriate action be taken. They have also sent a financial audit of a medical institution and it depicts stipends in expenses, as reported by The New Indian Express.