Shifted from Gian Sagar, PG students move HC for stipend

Tribune News Service
Faridkot, November 29 

After Guru Gobind Singh Medical College (GGSMC), Faridkot, declined to pay stipend to many postgraduate medical students, who were shifted from Gian Sagar Medical College at Banur, Patiala, the latter approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which issued summons to the college for December 9.

After the closure of the college in May 2017, many students of postgraduate students were shifted to other medical institutes in the state to complete remaining two years of their studies.

According to the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, issued by the MCI with regards to stipends payable to postgraduate students, the students undergoing a postgraduate course shall be paid stipend on par with the postgraduate students of the state medical institutions. While all other postgraduate students in the GGSMC were getting Rs 48,720 per month stipend, the postgraduate students shifted from the Gian Sagar college to Faridkot were not paid any stipend from June 2017 to April 2018, said Advocate Pradhuman Garg, who had approached the High Court on behalf of the students in January this year.

On September 13, the High Court had asked the GGSMC to take a decision on releasing stipend to students within a period of four weeks that time, but the medical college rejected the claim of the students, terming them ineligible for the stipend due to their shifting from a closed medical college, said Garg.

Now, the students have again approached the High Court, claiming that they were paying Rs 6.5 lakh per annum fee in the GGSMCH after shifting from Gian Sagar and performing over 12-hour duty in the medical college on a daily basis. They said they were not getting stipend on the pattern of other postgraduate students.

Earlier after these students had raised a hue and cry, the GGSMC had paid them Rs 24,360 (half stipend) from May 2018 to end of their courses in May 2019. Demanding the arrear of their two years of stipend from the GGSMC, these postgraduate students had approached the High Court in January.

Over 700 MBBS students of Gian Sagar and Chintpurni medical colleges were shifted to other medical colleges in the state in 2017 after the closure of these colleges.