Chennai, Jul 29 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government has decided to waive off the Rs 2 lakh fee for students who clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) in order to obtain internships at government medical colleges in the state, Health and Family Welfare Minister Ma Subramanian announced on Friday.

According to the minister, the FMGE graduates only need to pay Rs 30,000 for a compulsory rotatory medical internship (CRMI) in the state. "This has been a long pending request from the medical graduates who have completed their course from abroad and were struggling to pay the huge fee for doing internship at government medical colleges in the state," the minister told IANS.

He said that after clearing the national level screening test, the foreign medical graduates had to undergo the CMRI and had to pay Rs 5.20 lakh, Rs 3.20 lakh of which was to be paid for obtaining the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from MGR Medical University and the remaining Rs 2 lakh as internship fee to government medical colleges.

The minister said that the Rs 3.20 lakh for NOC was reduced to Rs 30,000 in February, after receiving several requests from student groups and parents. The remaining Rs 2 lakh will also be waived off now onwards at respective government medical colleges.

Subramanian also said that as most of the students who were unable to meet the expenses of medical education in the country, were going abroad to complete their studies, taking money from them does not augur well and hence the fee has been waived off.

He also requested the medical graduates to approach the Directorate of Medical Education for further details on the internships.