Representatives from private medical and dental colleges in Karnataka have decided to move the court to appeal against their demand to hike the fees was capped by the state government. This move came after talks, held on Friday, with Medical Education Minister DK Shivakumar failed.
In the meeting, Shivakumar made it clear that the 15% hike proposed by the colleges would be capped at 8%.
MR Jayaram, the Chairman of the Karnataka Professional Colleges Foundation, said, “The minister was not even ready to hear our demands. He straight away rejected our proposal and said he can’t give more than 8%, and that we can do whatever we want to. So, we have decided to fight it out legally.”
He added, “It is difficult to run colleges without increasing the fees.”
At an earlier meeting between representatives of the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK), the Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association and Medical Education Minister DK Shivakumar, the demand was raised that the fee for undergraduate medical and dental courses be increased by 15%.
In 2017-2018, a memorandum of understanding was signed between private medical colleges and the Karnataka government, stating that a 10% fee hike can be applied for the next three years. However, the 15% hike demand from the representatives of private colleges went against this memorandum.
Though further meetings were held, no consensus was reached by the parties on the fee.
The Fee Regulatory Committee, headed by retired Justice DV Shylendra Kumar, had recommended that the fee hike be capped at 8%.
In the wake of the failed meeting on Friday, the representatives of private medical and dental colleges have decided that they will not attend any further meetings on fee structure and seat sharing with the state government