Patna: A five-member educational fee fixation committee led by Justice (retired) Akhilesh Chandra on Saturday fixed fees for private medical colleges in Bihar, thereby providing relief to students seeking admission into them. The new fees will be effective in the 2018-19 academic session.

As per the panel, of which health department principal secretary Sanjay Kumar is member-secretary, the Katihar Medical College and Narayan Medical College (Sasaram) will realise Rs 8.38 lakh and Rs 8.21 lakh per annum, respectively from students in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. Similarly, the fee for 2018-19 academic session at Mata Gujri Medical College in Kishanganj has been fixed at Rs 8 lakh.

However, the prescribed fees do not include hostel, transport, mess charges and other similar charges, which add to medical education cost.

State health minister Mangal Pandey expressed happiness over the decision of the committee and said this would remove the burden of unnecessary financial pressure from the students of Bihar.

"With this decision, the practice of the management of private medical colleges in the state deciding the fee structure will end. There will be transparency in financial matters," Pandey said.

Quoting the panel's decision, the minister said private medical colleges shall not charge, either directly or indirectly, any amount over and above the amount fixed as fees. "If any other amount is charged under any head or guise, for example, donations or similar things, it would be tantamount to charging capitation fee. Any deviation will entail serious penal consequences," he said.

Pandey said the educational fee fixation committee, which started working around mid-2017, worked with alacrity.

"The state government was keen to see the judgement at the earliest and to provide relief to needy students aspiring to pursue medical courses. The decision would help medical aspirants fulfill their dream," hoped Pandey.

The health minister also said that the fee structure of private dental colleges in Bihar would also be rationalised in the near future.

The Bihar government had set-up the fee fixation committee after the Supreme Court's direction to rationalise the fee structure in private medical colleges. After the introduction of the NEET exam for entry to medical colleges, the fee fixation had also become all the more necessary.