More than 300 Hyderabad medical students set to lose a year as unpaid faculty stop lectures for over a month

With the faculty and management of Maheshwara Medical College in Patancheru at loggerheads for the past several months, it's the students who are at the receiving end. It's been a month since the faculty stopped taking classes as they have not been paid for the last six months. Some haven't been paid for the last nine months.

With classes suspended and midterm examination less than a month away, the fate of 300 students hangs in as they stare at year loss if classes do not resume soon. On February 14, after the irate parents met the director, he issued a letter to all parents stating that classes would resume from the following Monday, February 18.

The assurance, however, turned out to be an empty promise. On Monday parents and students staged a dharna at the college and later complained to the district collectorParents are now mulling legal recourse if the management does not resolve the issue with a week. Parents said that they came to know about the issue some two weeks ago and since then they have met the director at least eight time, officially and unofficially. "Each time we were asked for few days time. Finally, we decided to form an association and met the official on 2 February. We were told that the salaries would be reimbursed the following Monday and classes will also begin. We were also shown a DD of a few crores but turns out it was fake. They have just been buying time," said S Prasad, a parent.

Parents then went to the Sangareddy district collector, M Hanumanth Rao who has directed the tehsildar to look into the matter since the college is autonomous. On Tuesday they also raised the issue with the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) to the medical college is affiliated. B Manohar (name changed on request) has paid Rs 11.55 lakh annually for his daughter's fees. The second-year student has not had classes since Sankranti holidays. "Classes started in October for the second-year students with midterm examination next month, we haven't even had lab examination or practicals till now. We are worried that we could lose a year if classes do not commence in the next couple of weeks," said B Preethi, a student. Her father added that even if they went to the court, the likelihood of students losing a year is high.

Meanwhile, the faculty members too interacted with the director and said that unless the salary is paid to them they will not resume classes. "Students come to college regularly and request us to take classes but unless our dues are cleared classes will be remain suspended. The management has been dilly-dallying us for months now," said a faculty member. The medical college and hospital was established four years ago but last year the college did not get approval for admitting fresh batch of students.