THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Despite having Rs 26 crore, the uncertainty over the scholarship announced by the government following the High Court verdict has put students from poor families who got admission in self-financing medical colleges at high fees in crisis. Even after three years, the government has not taken any action to change the verdict.

The fee scheme for those who got allotment in self-financing medical colleges from 2017-18, which was paid by the government, has been stopped.The scholarship was made possible by charging an additional Rs 5 lakh in fees from the NRI quota admissions and then transferring that to a government corpus fund . This includes government share. However, since the High Court ordered in 2019 that a special legislation is needed to provide scholarships from this fund, students have not been able to get scholarships since then.

The government has two options. Special law should be enacted for scholarships or to attain a favourable order from court stating Supreme Court's order. Although the scholarship was blocked by the High Court, still Rs 5 lakh is collected from the NRI quota students along with the fees. More than Rs 26 crore is in the fund now. The government introduced the scholarship through a special notification as the medical fees was inaccessible to the poor.

"Will ask the Standing Council to take action to expedite the case in the Supreme Court. Will convince the matters to the Supreme Court. " said Justice R. Rajendra Babu, Chairman of the Fee Determination Committee