Now, higher penalty for Haryana govt doctors leaving service midway

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, June 2

In a bid to retain super-specialists in the government health sector, the state has significantly hiked the penalty for the doctors leaving service before the term of the bond ends.

Under the new postgraduate policy to be implemented from 2022-23, doctors granted no-objection certificate (NOC) will have to execute a bond with the Health Department to pursue a course with full pay. After the completion of the super-speciality course (DM), the doctor will serve in the Health Department for a minimum period of seven years or will have to shell out Rs 1.5 crore for his failure to honour this commitment, the policy asserted.

In case of postgraduate degree courses, the doctors will have to serve the department for at least seven years or pay Rs 1 crore penalty to the state government. For doctors completing diploma courses, the minimum period for serving the government will be five years and Rs 65 lakh penalty in case of default.

Doctors granted NOC without pay for the super-speciality courses will also have to execute a bond to serve the department for five years or pay Rs 1 crore in case of failure to do so.

And for postgraduate courses, the doctors will have to serve the department for five years or pay Rs 75 lakh penalty. For the diploma course, a doctor needs to serve the government for at least five years or Rs 45 lakh fine.

Earlier, the doctors doing PG courses (both super-speciality and PG) with full pay had to serve the government for a minimum period of seven years while the penalty amount was Rs 50 lakh. For diploma course, the minimum period for government service was five years or Rs 35 lakh penalty.

Similarly, for doctors pursuing postgraduate courses without pay, the minimum period for government service was five years or Rs 35 lakh fine. For diploma course, the period was four years and Rs 25 lakh penalty.

Meanwhile, a two-year stint in the health institutions in the remote and difficult areas will be a must for the government doctors wanting to pursue postgraduate degrees such as DM/MS with full pay. Other eligible doctors will pursue the PG courses without pay.