There are 11 private dental colleges and two government dental colleges in the state. While all 80 seats in government dental colleges in Patiala and Amritsar and 40 in Christian Dental College, Ludhiana, have been filled, 220 under management quota in private colleges are vacant.

Sources said the private medical colleges had sometime ago raised their fee three times and the dental colleges more than five times.

The medicos alleged that the Punjab government, “under pressure” from private medical and dental colleges, had increased the fee for management quota MBBS seats from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per annum and for the BDS seats from Rs 55,000 to Rs 2.3 lakh per annum. The fee for BAMS/BHMS courses was increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.1 lakh, it was learnt.

With dental doctors in demand abroad, especially in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, students preferred colleges outside Punjab, which have relatively lower fee structure, said an immigration consultant, Bikram Singh.

With many writ petitions pending in the court, challenging the fee hike notification of the Punjab government done in late 2007, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is also not happy with the working of the department and has expressed his unhappiness to Minister for Medical Education and Research Tikshan Sud.

The CM had intervened twice in the department’s functioning by forming a committee for the revision of fee structure, and then forming another panel for restructuring of fees according to the guidelines of the Medical Council of India.

Sud, however, said delay in counselling and late approval for 230 seats from the Dental Council of India were the major reasons for the non-filling of seats.

When asked about the vacant seats under management quota, he said the high fee structure was not the only reason.