GADVASU students polish shoes, sell lemon soda to mark their protest

Tribune News Service

Harshraj Singh

Ludhiana, June 9

As the state government has not yet met their demand of increase in stipend, students of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) polished shoes and sold noodles and lemon soda to mark their protest here on Thursday.

Amid scorching heat, it was the fourth day of the protest by the students, who are demanding from the government to increase the internship allowance from Rs 6,200 to Rs 17,000 per month per student.

The veterinary interns of GADVASU said: “We set up shoe polish stalls, noodles and lemon soda corners to put across the point that an amount equivalent to the current stipend allowance could be easily earned by doing these jobs. The meagre amount which is being paid as internship allowance here was unjust to students of a professional degree of five-and-a-half year-long period.”

Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) and Animal Husbandry (AH) students said they were being given a meagre Rs 6,200 as an internship stipend here but the internship allowance at the veterinary universities in Haryana and Rajasthan was Rs 17,000 per month per student. The internship allowance at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Varanasi was Rs 23,500 per month per student, they said.

The students said a group of the veterinary interns met Punjab Education Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer who assured the students of forwarding their appeal to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. The veterinary interns, however, made it clear that if their voices are not heard, they would intensify their agitation in the coming days.

Extending support to the cause, GADVASU Teacher’s Association president Dr BK Bansal and vice- president Dr APS Brar met the students.

Besides, the struggle of the veterinary students seeking an increase in their internship allowance has been supported by veterinary officers of the Animal Husbandry Department.

Secretary-General of Punjab State Veterinary Officers Association Dr Darshan Kheri and district president Dr Chatinder Singh Rai in a statement today appealed to the government of the Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab to accept the legitimate demand of the students.

Dr Darshan Kheri said the issue of an increase in internship allowance had been pending since the regime of the last Congress government. “The internship students and Veterinary Officers Association have on several occasions made a written request to the government in this regard but the bureaucracy is deliberately hanging on to this issue”, he said.

Compared to other states, Punjab’s veterinary interns were being given much less stipend which was unfair to them, he added.

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