The Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) Hyderabad has written a letter to the dean of ESIC Medical College of the city today, February 25, regarding issues faced by PG resident doctors there. The letter has urged the dean to communicate with the students and address the issues.

According to the HRDA, the students have not received their stipends for the last five months. As per the letter, the stipend is Rs 99,857, which remains the same for all three years of PG residents.

The letter also alleges the tuition fee collected, which is Rs 2.5 lakh, is "exorbitant" for a government medical college, and so is the hostel fee, which is Rs 15,000 per month per person for a double-sharing room. The association highlights that there would be students from poor backgrounds as well for whom the fees would be too high.

The HRDA also points out that ID cards have not been issued to date for the first-year PG medicos. "Hence no access for 1st year Post Graduate students to the library, workshops, academic activities and health facilities," the letter states.

The college has been accused of not publishing a fresh admission order yet. "Hence sir, we urge you to communicate with postgraduate students regularly to know the issues faced by them and resolve issues as early as possible," HRDA writes. A copy of the letter has been sent to Telangana's Principal Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Director of Medical Education and Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Labour and Employment.