Students belonging to SC/ST communities, who come under the post-matric scholarship scheme, have been asked to pay several lakhs of rupees in cash annually to private medical colleges towards “development fee” and under other heads every year so as to retain their seat in those colleges, affected parents have alleged.

At a press conference in Chennai on Tuesday, some of the affected parents said private colleges were collecting ₹6 lakh to ₹10 lakh from them in cash. No receipts were given to them after payment. “This has been the practice by almost all private medical colleges,” alleged M. Bharathan, state organiser, AKAM (Ambedkar Kalvi Centenary Movement) Foundation. “Out of the 2,500 medical seats available to SC/ST students in Tamil Nadu every year, only around 1,100 get filled due to these teething issues. As part of the post-matric scholarship scheme, both government quota and management quota students get their tuition fees paid by the government. This amount is demanded over and above that,” Mr. Bharathan alleged.

An affected parent, on condition of anonymity, said he was asked to pay ₹7.7 lakh cash at the time of admission which he mobilised after selling gold jewellery and borrowing money on usury. Before the first-year term-end exam, he was asked to pay the same amount for the next year without which his child won’t be able to appear for the exam. Another parent said that he had to sell his house to fund his child’s dream of studying medicine. The paperwork for loans disbursed by Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation (TAHDCO), too, required endorsement by two government officials, putting the parents in a tight spot, they added.

“Almost all private colleges, whether the ones in Trichy, or Salem, or Kundrathur, collect this exorbitant fee and do not provide receipts to the parents. The Income Tax Department should carry out raids during the admission season,” Mr. Bharathan asserted.

In engineering colleges, the problem lies mostly with the government. As per G.O. 72 issued in 2018, the government sanctioned ₹50,000 as the scholarship payment towards meeting tuition fees for either government quota seats or the management quota. All private colleges have since increased their fees for popular courses like Computer Science and Engineering and AI-related courses, even for the government quota seats, said G. Chandramohan, state organiser, AKAM Foundation. Fees for the management quota seats and some of the government quota seats (depending upon the popularity of the course) have been increased to about ₹1.5 lakh per annum, he added. “We demand that G.O. 72 be withdrawn and scholarship amount be drawn up freshly keeping in mind the course fee,” Mr. Bharathan added. He also demanded the setting up of a fees fixation committee for Arts and Science colleges where SC/ST students get a scholarship amount of ₹1,500 per annum.