The students of Rajah Muthiah Medical College have been protesting for over 55 days demanding government intervention in their fee issue. The students have found some success with the government announcing that the College will now be under the Health and Family Welfare Department and would be affiliated to the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University, officially making it a government college. However, this announcement hadn’t satisfied the students as no mention had been made about the fee structure.
On February 1, Health Minister Dr C Vijayabaskar, who is incidentally, an alumnus of RMMCH urged the students to call off the protest. “The Government Order for the reduced fee structure for RMMCH is under favorable consideration by the Chief Minister. I urge the students’ council to recall the protest and resume work immediately,” Vijayabaskar had said in a tweet.
After the initial announcement about the shift of the College from the Department of Higher Education to the Health and Family Welfare Department, the students declared that they would not be calling off the strike, as this move should have been made as early as February 2020. They insisted that they would carry on the strike until they know for sure that their fees will look identical to the fees being charged in government-run medical colleges.
“We are not aggressively protesting like we were before but our peers are still sitting there. We have reined it in a bit but will not be satisfied until the Government Order is issued. So we are just waiting for it,” a student protestor said.