After protests, Goa Dental College’s steep fee hike rolled back

Panaji, Dec 5 : The state government on Saturday rolled back a steep fee hike for various postgraduate courses at the Goa Dental College after protests by students.

After students enrolled in the courses protested the move to hike semester fees from Rs 12,000 to Rs 1 lakh, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane tweeted on Saturday that the 800 per cent fee hike had been scrapped.

"With reference to hike in fee at the Goa Dental College, it was a communication gap between the Public Health Department and both the institutions of Goa Dental Colleges.However, we have issued necessary instruction to not increase the fees of both the institutions," Rane said.

The Goa Dental College is the only one of its kind in the state and functions under the Health Department.College authorities on November 6 announced an increase in fees, attracting the ire of student community.

The issue was later picked up by the opposition parties, which accused the government of putting financial strain on the students in times of Covid-19 pandemic.College students even submitted a memorandum to the Health Department to roll back the revised fee structure for postgraduate courses.