Over 250 postgraduate (PG) resident doctors of Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College (MRMC) Kalaburagi, Karnataka, have been on a strike for three days since Tuesday, February 27 against the college management.
The students alleged that the management has been involved in a ‘stipend scam’, wherein, the stipends being credited to students’ accounts are being retracted by the college management every month.
The medical students have alleged that the college has been forcing them to open separate bank accounts in one specific bank for their stipends. The students are then being asked to submit signed cheques to the management.
While every month, the students receive a stipend of Rs 45,000; Rs 50,000 and Rs 55,000 per month for first, second and third year PG residents, respectively, as mandated by government regulations, the same is systematically withdrawn by the college management later, the students have claimed.
When EdexLive reached out to the protesting students, they informed that they have only been receiving an effective amount of Rs 8,000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000, respectively, each month while the rest is being withdrawn using the blank cheques.
“The college forces us to open a bank account in a specific branch of Canara Bank in Kalaburagi. Even if a student already has an account in Canara Bank, he is either asked to transfer branches or open a new account. Then, everyone is forced to issue a 36-leaflet cheque book and submit it with our signatures. Until every student has submitted the chequebook to the management, no one gets a stipend,” a postgraduate resident from MRMC informed EdexLive, on the condition of anonymity.
The students claimed that for almost six years, they have not been receiving the full amount as mandated by the government.
On Tuesday, the PG residents launched a strike against the scam by college management. The protestors also submitted a memorandum to the Dean Dr SM Patil demanding payment of full stipends to the students henceforth and the payment of the withdrawn amounts so far.
So far, the college management has not responded to the serious allegations made by the students.
“Even when the National Medical Commission (NMC) released guidelines saying that private institutes should pay stipends to PG doctors in par with the government institutes, we are not receiving the full amount. On paper, we are getting Rs 45,000 to Rs 55,000 but in reality we are not even receiving Rs 15,000. Now, we have called for a strike boycotting all OPD (Out-patient department) services but even then, the faculty members are forcing us to take up OPD duties,” another student from the institute told EdexLive on condition of anonymity.
To recall, the NMC recently reiterated in its Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (PGMER-23) that the stipends paid to postgraduate (PG) students at private medical colleges will have to be on par with the amount paid at state-run colleges which is Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 per month.
