Legislation on uniform fee in professional colleges: Patil to hold talks with Nadda

Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil has said that he will take up with Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda the need to bring in an Act to regulate admissions in professional colleges and fix uniform fee, during his visit to Bengaluru on Sunday.

He told presspersons here on Saturday that this had become imperative after recent Supreme Court judgments on the issue.

The full bench of the Supreme Court, while giving full powers to private managements to conduct their own entrance examinations and fix fees in medical colleges, had also felt the need for a law on admission and a fee fixation policy.

Dr. Patil said that Mr. Nadda would visit National Institute for Mental Health and Neuroscience (Nimhans) in Bengaluru. The Minister said that he would also raise the issue on the need to hasten the process of setting up a branch of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at any of the four centres suggested by the State government.

The Union Minister would be requested to send a team from the AIIMS and the Health Ministry for finalising the location.

Dr. Patil said that he would take up with Mr. Nadda the proposal for establishing the second unit of the Nimhans in Bengaluru.

Land had been identified for the purpose. Approval would be sought for upgrading the peripheral cancer centres at Kalaburagi and Mandya.

The State government would also press for upgrading the Sanjay Gandhi Institute of Trauma and Orthopaedics and the trauma centre established by the State government at Victoria Hospital, Bengaluru. To a question, the Minister said that a meeting of private professional college managements had been convened in Bengaluru on January 3 to discuss the provisions of the revised Karnataka Professional Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of fee) Bill. “The government has discussed the pros and cons of the Bill with other stakeholders including student organisations, Opposition parties, and parents.”

Dr. Patil said that the government proposed to introduce the Bill in the joint session of the Assembly to be held some time in the last week of January.

The government has appointed retired High Court judges Gururajan and Keshav Narayan to head the fee fixation and admission overseeing committees.

He will also take up the issue of regulation of admissions