Govt agreement with pvt med colleges against spirit of SC

BJP today alleged that the Kerala government's agreement with self-financing medical college managements on seat sharing and fee structure for MBBS and dental courses was against the spirit of the recent Supreme Court order that the state has power to regulate admissions and fix fees in such institutes.
Levelling serious corruption charges against the government over the matter, senior BJP leader V Muraleedharan demanded immediate resignation of Health Minister K K Shailaja.
Shailaja held meetings with private medical managements association representatives, based on which both parties agreed to increase existing fees for all, barring 20 per cent seats allocated for students belonging to BPL category.

Muraleedharan, also a former president of the state BJP unit, said the apex court's Constitution Bench had on May 2 said that "fundamental rights of private unaided professional colleges must yield to public interest and rights of the students at large."
He alleged that the state government deliberately did not cite this key judgement before Kerala High Court when it considered a petition by private medical college managements, challenging the government order, directing the Commissioner for Entrance Examination to hold admission to all seats, including NRI and management, in self-financing medical and dental colleges in the state.
"By doing so, the state government was indirectly helping private medical college managements to win the case," he said.

"Later, the agreement reached between the state government and private medical college managements paved the way for them to amass huge capitation fees from students from all sections. It is scandalous," he said.

Muraleedharan said the Central government and Supreme Court had said that admission for medical and dental courses shall be conducted from the NEET list on the basis of merit.
"But here in Kerala, the stands taken by the Central government and the apex court on the issue are violated," Muraleedharan argued.
Terming the agreement between the state government and self-financing college managements as "illegal", he said the state BJP would seek all legal options to challenge it before the court of law.