PG students, interns of Govt Dental College protest

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 3

The post-graduate students and interns working at Government Dental College and Hospital staged a protest outside the district treasury office here today, demanding that their stipend be released immediately. The PG students and interns stated that they have not been paid the stipend for the past 11 months.

However, after the protest, treasury officials issued an invoice number to the protesters and promised them that the payment would be disbursed soon in their accounts.

The PG students and interns stated that for the past many months, they had been running from pillar to post to get the stipend, but failed to get the money as the government has not allocated the budget for it.

“Now when the government had allocated the budget and the college administration had passed the bills, the treasury officials were delaying the matter, stating that they could not clear the bills,” said the PG students.

They stated that they had to resort to protest after which the treasury officials sprung into action and assured to help them. Meanwhile, senior vice-president of PCMS Association and spokesperson of the Resident Doctors Association, Dr Gagandeep Singh Shergill, and Punjab State Ministers Staff Union general secretary Jagdish Thakur came out in the support of the agitators and criticised the treatment being given to the PG students and interns. They demanded that in future, the stipend should be paid regularly.

The dental college has around 35 PG students and 40 interns who are being paid Rs 42-47,000 per month and Rs 9,000 per month respectively. The students complained that in the absence of regular payment of stipend, they face difficulties in managing their expenses.