More than 140 students from economically weaker backgrounds, whose families earn less than Rs 8 lakh annually, have pursued postgraduate clinical specialty seats under private medical colleges’ management and NRI quotas. The annual tuition fees for these programs are notably high, ranging between Rs 25 lakh and over Rs 90 lakh.
This situation has raised questions among many aspirants about how these candidates obtained EWS certificates while being able to afford over a crore for a three-year postgraduate course. In the first round of seat allotment for postgraduate medical courses, announced on November 20, over 24,600 seats were allocated. Among these, 135 management quota seats in private medical colleges went to candidates identified as EWS.
Eight NRI seats have also been allocated to candidates under the EWS category. For example, an MS Orthopaedics seat under the management quota at Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences in Puducherry, with a total tuition fee of Rs 1.6 crore for the course, has been allotted to an EWS candidate. Similarly, an MD Radiology seat from the NRI quota at Rajarajeswari Medical College and Hospital in Mysore has been secured by an EWS candidate.
As per media reports, the annual fee for one of these seats is Rs 91 lakh, totaling over Rs 2.7 crore for the entire course. Several MBBS graduates who took the NEET-PG exam have expressed concerns over an apparent increase in candidates allegedly using fake EWS certificates, urging the government to investigate the matter. “It’s upsetting to see EWS candidates securing seats in colleges with fees running into crores. The government should revoke such admissions,” said Aman Kaushik, a NEET-PG aspirant, in a report.