State reminds pvt med colleges to follow SC mandate, resume admissions; colleges wait for assurance on fee reimbursements

MUMBAI: The state govt owes around Rs 30-50 crores per annum to each private medical college, claimed their association members on Friday. Some of them have pending dues for over three to four years from different welfare offices. With increasing govt schemes, many of them rely on govt reimbursements for 60-70% of their seats, and it has become difficult for them to sustain with increasing costs, they claimed.The colleges have stalled the admission process for MBBS and BDS at the institutional level from October 1, after giving a letter to the state's medical education minister, Hasan Mushrif.
For the second day in a row, these colleges affiliated with the Association of Managements of Unaided Private Medical and Dental Colleges (AMUPMDC) refused to admit students who were allotted seats in the second merit list. While a meeting scheduled with the state's medical education department on Friday was called off, the latter has written to their association asking them to resume the admission process, reminding them about the Supreme Court mandate. Colleges, however, claimed that they needed assurance from the govt on the timely disbursal of the reimbursements.
"We also have students' best interests in our mind and we would not want them to suffer. But we want the govt to give us some assurance in writing that they would make provisions for timely disbursals of these amounts from various welfare offices. The govt was quite prompt in the execution initially, but has not been doing it on time of late. A majority of our outgo is for teachers' salaries every month, and it has become very difficult with such delays in reimbursements as the colleges are dependent on the govt. Some of the newer colleges are suffering the most as they have borrowed huge loans from the banks for building their infrastructure," said a member of the association.
The state's CET cell issued a notice on Thursday warning them of legal action. The colleges, however, will continue with their protest till they get some assurance from the govt.