Gian Sagar Medical College in fiscal mess again

Gagan K Teja

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 27

The issue of the non-payment of salaries to the medical and paramedical staff of Gian Sagar Medical College and Hospital, Banur, for the past five months has brought down the institute on its knees yet again as the teaching and medical facilities in the institute have been suspended for the past one month, causing great loss to the students and patients.

To add to their woes, the team of the Medical Council of India will soon visit the college for inspection to see whether it qualifies for admitting the next batch of MBBS students or not. Apart from the financial constraints that have been keeping the authorities on tenterhooks, the college has serious shortage of faculty, which might become a threat for the very existence of the institution. There are only about 75 faculty members against the requirement of about 150 for the medical college and some departments have only one or two doctors.

This is not the first time that the authorities have failed to disburse the salaries of staff for months together. There have been protests in the past too in this regard and the staff has been completely boycotting working. This time also, the faculty has been repeatedly requesting the management to pay their salaries and had even brought the matter to the notice of Vice-Chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences and Director Research and Medical Education Dr Sujata Sharma, but to no avail.

Annoyed over the situation, the students have now joined the agitation, demanding timely salaries to their teachers and technical staff. Apart from that, the students are also demanding adequate staff strength, hostel facilities and proper utilisation of their fee. To get their demands fulfilled, the students also held a protest march holding banners and raised slogans against the management for present crisis. They have even met DRME, seeking her intervention to save their future.

A student said though the exams were around the corner, the teaching had been suspended, putting our studies at risk. Moreover, hostellers were facing tough time as they had not been provided food by mess operators and electricity supply was erratic due to non-payment of electricity bill by the management, the student said.

“Though we have time and again requested the management to look into our problems, all requests fall on deaf ears, and we are left with no option but to raise our voice against the management. Even now if the management does not take note of our issues, we will intensify our struggle,” he said.

Meanwhile, accepting that the institution and the students were suffering as the university exams were nearing, Dr AS Sekhon, Dean of the Gian Sagar Group of Institutions, said the management had assured him that they would try to resolve the issue in the coming week.