Extra fees will be adjusted, says CMC

Chitwan, November 1

Chitwan Medical College has said it will adjust the extra fees taken from the students.

Organising a press conference in Bharatpur today, the college cited technical difficulties in returning the amount long after they were paid, and said it would rather adjust the excess amount charged from students in the next academic session.

“As we’ve already entered the fees in our accounts, got them audited and paid our taxes accordingly, returning anything of that paid amount was not possible now.  We would rather adjust the extra fees in the next academic session, as provisioned by the law,” said CMC Director Harish Neupane at the conference.

Neupane admitted that the college had collected Rs 600,000 over the top of what was fixed by the government, for each student. The college director, however, still argued that the college’s decision to charge extra amount from students was in line with the notice and direction of the Institute of Medicine.

“It’s true that the government has fixed the tuition fees for MBBS programme outside the valley at Rs 4.245 million, but the notice and the direction of IoM has a provision that allows medical colleges to charge extra amount as per necessity, and that’s what we had done,” Neupane argued.

Meanwhile, students have demanded that the colleges be ready for both options. “Fee adjustment is okay and applicable for the first or the second year students, but what about those students who have already paid all the fees? The college must be ready to return the extra money it charged from the third and the fourth year students,”demanded Medical Education Struggle Committee Coordinator Prakash Chand, warning that the college would have to face an agitation.

“The college has fleeced up to 600,000 rupees from an MBBS student and up to 300,000 rupees from a nursing student,” said Chand.

The struggle committee was set to start a nation-wide agitation from Monday to press medical colleges who took students for a ride to return the amount beyond what was fixed by the government, according to Chand.

There are around 400 students studying MBBS at present in the college. It has also pledged to run in complete compliance with the process and fee structures decided by the Medical Education Commission in future.