Scholarship for students in self-financing medical colleges; government scholarship scheme turns flop

Thiruvananthapuram: The scholarship scheme meant as aide for students, at self-financing medical colleges, coming from poor background turned into a flop. Only 63 students are listed in the draft. Many BPL students were out of the list. Hence, future course of numerous students are in limbo.

The government scholarship was started for students who got admission in the academic year of 2017-18. The scheme was in the wake of fees unification in the government self finance medical colleges. The scholarships were given out of the fund formed by collecting five lakh rupees from the students studying under NRI quota and government fund. Rs. 27 Cr. was raised from students studying under NRI quota. The scheme envisaged that 90 percent of the fees will be paid by the government and 10 percent shall be borne by the student. As per the norm, students were to remit Rs. 50,000. The government will incur only Rs. 2.83 Cr. if Rs. 4.50 lakh is disbursed for 63 students. The balance amount was reserved to strike off many names from the list.

Numerous students who had taken loans and borrowed money for admission in medical colleges are on the verge of discontinuing their course. The parents association has initiated steps take up the matter to the government.

Till 2016-17, self-finance colleges had different fee structure for merit and management seats. 403 of students from poor background had taken admission in 2016 alone in self finance medical colleges. The number of students was reduced to 63 when scholarship scheme was announced. Earlier, SEBC students had opportunity to study in self-finance colleges by paying low fees. Students from SEBC category were spared from benefits as the scholarship scheme was limited for BPL students. When the list was published, even the deserving students of BPL category were expelled.