The private medical colleges have an option of going to the appellate authority if they have any misgivings on the orders of fees fixation committee, said the Minister of State for Higher Education Dhan Singh Rawat while interacting with the media persons at State office of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Tuesday. When asked to comment on refusal of the SGRR Medical College to pay the penalty imposed by the fee fixation committee, Rawat said that the college has option to take the issue to the appellate committee formed on the orders of Supreme Court (SC). This committee is headed by a retired judge of High Court and has Governor’s nominee and Government’s nominee as members. In a major decision on Monday, the Fee Fixation Committee had imposed a financial penalty of Rs 10 lakh per student on SGRR Medical College for not adhering to the prescribed fees.
The Minister said that to remove all hassles related to fees and other issues, the State Government is planning to bring in a comprehensive umbrella act for all universities of the State. The act would have both Government and private universities of the State under its ambit and the State Government would decide the fee structure of these universities.
He said that the higher education directorate of Uttarakhand has sent a proposal to increase the fee in the Government colleges of the state and the State Government would take a decision on fee increase after going through the proposal.
The Minister claimed that the fee in Government colleges of the State is among the lowest with provision of fee exemption to the students of SC and ST. “In Government colleges, the fees are very less and not revised for long. For example in Government colleges a fee of only Rs 10 is charged for library, now the department has proposed that it should be doubled. In last one year we have provided Principals and faculty in all colleges and worked on improving infrastructure of the colleges,’’ he said.