Maharashtra NEET UG Counselling 2024: Medical colleges draw ARA ire over admission denials, excess fee

By Musab Qazi

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra Admission Regulating Authority (ARA) has directed around a dozen medical colleges and AYUSH institutes in the state to enrol the candidates who were denied admission on seats allotted to them through NEET counselling 2024.

The ARA acted after several students complained that the colleges demanded higher than the prescribed fees. These institutes allegedly refused to confirm the allotments in the third and final admission round, when the candidates expressed their inability to pay the excess amount.

According to the minutes of an ARA meeting held on Friday, the authority has asked the errant institutes to admit these students by October 27 evening and has threatened them with disciplinary action if they fail to do so.

The development is the latest flashpoint in an ongoing tussle between state agencies and private medical colleges, including AYUSH institutes, over the colleges' finances.

Maharashtra NEET UG Counselling: Fight over fees

Earlier this month, all private dental and medical colleges in the state had briefly put the undergraduate admissions on hold demanding that the government first clear its arrears towards scholarship and freeship programmes for disadvantaged students.

The move came after the state Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) imposed a limit on the refundable 'deposit' or 'caution' money levied by health science institutes some months ago, and prohibited them from charging students under any head other than tuition and development fees and hostel and mess charges.

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In the current admission cycle, ARA has so far received 25 grievances pertaining to eight medical, one dental, five ayurveda and one homeopathy colleges. While some of these complaints have been resolved and a few were adjudicated to be outside of its purview, the authority decided to intervene in the majority of the cases, which also included ones related to documents.

According to the minutes of the ARA meeting, the following colleges were accused of demanding five times the regular fees for institutional-quota MBBS and dentistry seats, instead of the maximum three times allowed by the fee regulator.

• Parbhani Medical College at Parbhani,
• ACPM Medical College at Dhule
• Prakash Institute of Medical Sciences at Sangli
• Indian Institute of Medical Science and Research (IIMSR) at Jalna
• Maharashtra Institute of Medical Education and Research (MIMER) at Pune
• Dr NY Tasgaonkar Institute of Medical Science at Karjat, Raigad
• Terna Dental College at Navi Mumbai

In some instances, even as the aspirants were charged according to the norms, they were allegedly made to sign an undertaking saying that they will pay an additional amount later.

However, ARA determined these complaints to be beyond its mandate and belonging to the FRA’s province.

MBBS Fees: Sindhudurg medical college

The authority received three complaints regarding SSPM Medical College at Sindhudurg, which is run by BJP leader and member of parliament from the district, Narayan Rane and his family.

Two of the complainants – girl students belonging to economically backward class (EBC) category – alleged that the college ordered them to pay the entire sum of tuition fees, despite the state's recently-introduced 100% fee waiver for girls with family income less than Rs 8 lakh.

The college later admitted two of the students, while ARA has directed the authorities to admit the third one as well.

The institute has faced similar allegations of admission refusal in the previous two admission cycles as well.

The two complainants told Careers360 that the college authorities not only asked them to cough up the entire annual tuition fee of Rs 8 lakh, but also pay an additional equal amount towards hostel and mess charges, even though FRA directs against demanding the latter at the time of admission.

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The students, who relied on a charitable organisation for the relatively-small development fee component which they were liable to pay, said they were admitted at the fag end of admission deadline on October 24 following an intervention by the state Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell.

"The college authorities insisted that we pay the entire amount, which would be returned once they receive reimbursement from the government. When we cited the government resolution (GR) [prohibiting advance fee demands from female students], we were threatened with dire consequences," said one of the candidates.

Rane, while claiming that he is not involved in the college's operations, justified the fee demands citing the ostensible high cost of running the institute in a rural area.

"You should look into the situation of colleges in the Konkan region. On the one hand, we have to make purchases for the institute at an expensive rate, and on the other, the fees are being reduced. On top of it, the chief minister wants to waive girls' fees. How will one run the college?" Rane said, adding that the college hasn't received dues from the state for the last two years.

MBBS Admissions: Fee waiver and Mahayuti’s poll plank

Incidentally, Rane's BJP is in alliance with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with the ruling bloc – called ‘Mahayuti’ – seeking re-election in the upcoming state assembly elections. The fee waiver for poor girls, who were already availing 50% scholarship, was notified by the government in July this year as a means of improving female enrollment in higher education. The scheme is viewed as a key part of the Mahayuti's poll plank.

However, medical colleges fear that the educational aid will add to their financial burden as women constitute the majority of the student community. Around three weeks ago, the Association of Managements of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges (AMUPMDC) had abruptly announced that they were stopping admissions and refused to enrol the candidates allotted seats in the second admission round. The process resumed in three days after the government assured the institutes of taking a decision after consulting the various departments responsible for welfare programmes.