Faridkot Medical College students want hike in stipend

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, February 18

Students of Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, on Tuesday organised a protest rally, asking the state government to enhance their monthly stipend as the amount being paid to them was the lowest in the country.

They said they had been getting a meagre stipend of Rs 9,000 per month for the last few years. The interns at Central Government Medical College Hospitals were getting Rs 23,500 as stipend and even private medical colleges were paying up to Rs 15,000 as stipend.

While the emoluments of the junior resident doctors were revised every two years and at present, there were recommendations to enhance the gross emoluments of junior residents, but the state government was not concerned about the stipend being paid to the interns, rued the medical students.

The stipend to all medical students is paid for a one-year period of their compulsory internship after the completion of their 4-year and 6-month academic course. During the internship, the students assist in the running of medical college hospitals.

They said, “Working 30 days a month and a 12-hour daily, we, the ‘over-strained’ junior doctors in government medical colleges, are getting less than the minimum daily wages rate of Rs 325.53 in the state.”

The Medical Students’ Association, which organised a protest rally here, said they were getting Rs 300 per day. Their wages were lower than the minimum wages of an unskilled labourer.

They said the stipend being paid to them was the lowest among all the government institutions in the country whereas the fee was highest. There had been no hike in the monthly stipend for the last about 10 years.

The fees had been increased twice within the last four years. In 2015, the tuition fee for the first year of the MBBS course was increased from Rs 13,000 per annum to Rs 80,000 per annum but there was no increase in the stipend, rued the students. Deepak John Bhatti, principal, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot, said they had sent a representation of the students, demanding a hike in the stipend to the state government.

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.