New Delhi, Dec 4 (IANS): The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Wednesday warned the institute's administration against hiking the tuition fee and raising user charges for patients.

Speaking with IANS, Amarinder Singh Malhi, president of the RDA, said that the association opposes the proposed hikes because providing quality education and healthcare is the first and foremost responsibility of any country.

He also said that the RDA will not allow anyone to compromise on these two issues.

"Quality education and healthcare are the building blocks of our nation and we will not allow any person, organisation or government to compromise on that in any aspect."

He added that if the administration accepts the proposed hikes, the association will stage protests against the decision.

"Right now, we are waiting for a clearer picture regarding the issue which will take another four to five days. If the administration accepts the proposal for raising the tuition fee and users charges then we will certainly protest against the administration."

The Central Institute Body (CIB) of six AIIMS including Delhi on November 20 this year decided to review the tuition fees of the students and also to fix uniform user charges for patients.

In a letter issued to Delhi AIIMS, the CIB on the directions of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare sought to review all tuition fees and user charges in the institute.

The Body in the letter has said "users charges are important component of the non-tax revenues. Each ministry or department can identify 'users charges' levied by it", adding that "while fixing the users charges, the ministry/department must ensure that the users charges recover the current cost of providing services with reasonable return on capital investment".