Chandigarh, Sep 8 (IANS): The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday condemned the Congress government in Punjab for increasing the fee for MBBS course in government medical colleges by 75 per cent and demanded immediate rollback of the hike.

In a statement issued here, former minister Daljit Singh Cheema said that it seemed the government had not learnt any lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The need of the hour is to reduce MBBS fee to ensure students from ordinary backgrounds can become doctors. It is these students who will be ready to serve the state in rural areas. Instead of following this policy and subsidising medical education to bring it within the reach of the common man, the Congress government has increased fees in both government as well as private medical colleges," he said.

Cheema said students taking admission to government medical colleges would now have to pay a fee of Rs 7.80 lakh instead of Rs 4.4 lakh.

He said in case of private medical colleges, the fee has been hiked from Rs 13.4 lakh to Rs 18 lakh.

Similarly, the fee under the management quota in private medical colleges has been hiked to Rs 48 lakh and that under the NRI quota to Rs 81 lakh, Cheema said.

"Parents, who will have to spend an additional Rs 6-7 lakh on boarding and books, cannot cope with this huge expense during a time when the economy is on a downswing," Cheema added.