Dental students join OPD wearing black ribbons

Manmeet Singh Gill

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 5

Even as the interns and resident doctors of Government Dental College are on protest for the past one week over their stipend due for the last 11 months, they have so far failed to elicit a positive response from the authorities concerned. 

The delay in disbursement of stipend and scholarships to interns and post-graduate students-cum-resident doctors is a frequent phenomena witnessed during the past many years. 

However, the protests by the interns and resident doctors have failed to move the government to formulate a policy to ensure regular payments to the students. 

The interns are paid Rs 9,000 stipend in lieu of the services they offer at the dental hospital. 

The stipend for post-graduate students-cum-resident doctors ranges from Rs 42,000 to Rs 47,000. 

Even the interns and students at Government Medical College here often face problem in getting their stipend on time. 

Often, they have to meet officials to request for the release of funds. 

A student of the Government Dental College said, “The government should treat scholarship and stipend on a par with the salaries of the regular employees. All that government needs to change is to set its priorities and the problem would automatically be resolved.”

However, a senior official of the college said, “The problem arises when treasury receives verbal orders from the state government to stop all payments except salary. If the stipend account is added under the salary head and the government approves it, there is no chance that the stipend bills are not cleared by the treasury.”

The students said whatever needed to be done had to be done by senior officials. 

Though the interns and students have presently opened the OPD services, they are wearing black ribbons to show their resentment. 

“We have decided to wait for another 15 days after which we will take to the roads,” a student said.