Andhra Pradesh Health Minister allays fears of exorbitant fees at new medical colleges

Health Min. Rajini allays fears of unaffordable fees for new govt. medical colleges in AP; half of seats to be offered at nominal fee of ₹15K/yr. Self-finance & NRI fees ₹15L & ₹20L/yr respectively; revenue to fund world-class facilities & prevent student migration. 11 existing govt. colleges to continue.

Health Minister Vidadala Rajini has allayed apprehensions being expressed by the opposition that the five new government medical colleges coming up in the State would prove to be unaffordable for the common man.

Responding to a query at a media conference here on Thursday, Ms. Rajini said that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy was keen on providing world-class facilities at these new medical colleges in order to prevent migration of students from Andhra Pradesh to other States for pursuing MBBS. The rationale behind collecting higher fees under certain categories was to make these colleges self-sufficient, she said.

The Minister added that half of the seats at these five new medical colleges would be made available in the general pool at a nominal fee of ₹15,000 per annum.

The fees under ‘self-finance’ category would be ₹15 lakh per annum, and under NRI quota would be ₹20 lakh per annum, which was still much lower than that being collected by private medical colleges in A.P. and elsewhere in the country, she said. The revenue generated from these two categories would be utilised for continuation of the world-class facilities on a permanent basis, she said, ruling out the need for apprehensions that the poor would be affected by the higher fees.

The Minister said while five colleges were expected to start this year, another five were expect to function from the next academic year. To another query, she said that the 11 existing government colleges in the State would continue to function as usual.

Ms. Rajini said that a review meeting was held earlier in which Mr. Subba Reddy, Gajuwaka MLA T. Nagi Reddy, YSRCP north in-charge K.K. Raju and Collector A. Mallikarjuna had participated. The development works taken up under ‘Gadapa gadapaku mana prabhutvam’ and under ‘Nadu – Nedu’ in Gajuwaka and Viskahapatnam North constituency were reviewed.