Civic sources say that rising costs have spurred the revision in the fee structure and the proposal is a bid to reduce the gap between the income and the expenditure incurred on the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Lokmanya Tilak Medical General Hospital, B Y L Nair Hospital and Nair Dental College.

The proposal which will be put to vote at a meeting of the Public Health Committee next month and then the general body of the corporation, is expected to be passed unanimously as it will double the corporation's income from these colleges. Currently, the corporation earns around Rs 3 crore from the four colleges.

The civic body incurs an expenditure of some Rs 22 crores annually on the four hospitals, seven times its present income. PresentlyMBBS/BDS students pay around Rs 8000/- as fees, while post-graduates pay around Rs 12,000/- annually.

Health committee chairman Sardar Tara Singh today said there was no option. ``In 1948-49 the expenditure incurred was double the fees. In fifty years, expenses are hitting the roof and we are sliding financially,'' he said.

Ironically, Singh had vociferously opposed the hike when he was the chairman of Standing Committee three years back. The proposal which is now being revived was recorded by the Standing Committee in June 1996 and the general body in August 1996. The reason assigned then for not passing the proposal was that the hike would badly affect students who mostly hailed from middle-class families.

The current proposal, however, justifies the hike and states that higher education was not the duty of BMC.

It mourns the dearth of monetary help from the Central Government and the Maharashtra Government for running medical and dental colleges. It also states that the Medical Council of Indiahas revised yearly inspection fees from Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, recognition fees from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh and verification of completion fees from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 adding to the expenditure of colleges.

The proposal reveals that while Corporation has accorded full approval to 10 per cent full and 15 per cent partial freeships, these hospitals hardly received application for freeships from students which clearly showed that students could afford to pay higher amounts. Likewise there are scholarships for students of poor, middle and backward class communities.

The hike will come into immediate effect after the proposal is passed by both the statutory civic bodies. However, the fee hike for post-graduate degrees/diplomas will be effective from January 1999 pursuant to the agreement of January 11, 1996 signed with the Maharashtra Association of Residents Doctors after their historic strike which crippled life in these arterial medical hospitals. It was then agreed that there will be no increase inthe fees of post-graduate studies for at least the next three years.