Students seeking admission to medical colleges in the state are agonised by the large sums of money charged by colleges as caution or deposit money over and above the tuition fees.
The students are asked to pay this money under various heads such as hostel, mess, library, gymkhana and laboratory ostensibly to make up for any loss or damage to college property and is refunded to students only after completion of their course. The deposit amount for MBBS ranges anywhere between Rs 20,000 to Rs 5 lakh, with most of the colleges charging around Rs 2-3 lakh.
The aspirants, especially those belonging to marginalised communities, find it difficult to pay the deposit money alongwith the actual fees. "Our family's financial condition isn't good. While we can seek the help of charitable trusts for tuition fees, we are unable to arrange for the deposit money," said Deepak Jaiswal, an aspirant from Kurla.
Another student from Thane said, "Paying such a large amount at one go is an issue. It would have been better if the deposit money weren't this much."
What Are The Rules on Caution Money?
Like all the other professional programmes, the fees for medical courses are decided by the state's Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) by considering the college's annual expenditure on providing education. However, as FRA sanctions fees under only two heads - tuition fee and development fee, the deposit money has so far remained unregulated.
However, the National Medical Council (NMC), in an Office Memorandum issued last year, said that the deposits shouldn't be 'exorbitant'. It also says that the interest amount earned by college on the deposit money should be taken into account while calculating the institute's expenses. The guidelines also provide for FRA to put a cap on the deposit amount across colleges.
Recently, Kawish, a city-based educational organisation, wrote to FRA and requested to put a curb on colleges from charging exorbitant amount of caution money. "The students belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Vimukta Jati/Nomadic Tribe (VJ/NT) categories aren't charged any tuition fees, but they still have to pay these exorbitant amounts. While some colleges have reasonable deposit charge, others have way too much," said Najmuddin Shaikh, a career counsellor from Kawish.
Colleges Justify Deposit Amount
However, colleges justify the deposit amount claiming that it ensures security of college property. An official from Prakash Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Sangli said, "The money is taken for security purpose and used in case any student damages any equipment. It's done in a transparent manner, with receipts issued and money refunded to students afterwards," said the official.
The institute which has one of the highest deposit charges - Rs 3 lakh caution money, Rs 40,000 laboratory deposit, Rs 10,000 library deposit, Rs 1 lakh hostel deposit and Rs 50,0000 mess deposit besides Rs 7 lakh regular fee. The college official said that since they are a private institute, they don't recieve any aid from the government.
