Even as the National Medical Commission (NMC) continues to ignore the issue of medical colleges not paying stipends to their interns, states like Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Gujarat top the list of having the most institutes out of the 60 in the country that are not paying any compensation, a series of RTIs have revealed.
Although 60 medical colleges — 33 government institutes and 27 private colleges — do not pay stipends, another 50 pay nominal stipends of less than Rs 5,000, with some as low as Rs 2,000, The New Indian Express reports.
An RTI filed by Dr KV Babu has revealed that as many as 10 of the 60 institutes not paying stipends are located in Karnataka, comprising six government and four private medical colleges. Karnataka is followed by Gujarat (three government and four private medical colleges), Maharashtra (six government and one private college), and West Bengal (six government and one private college), states The New Indian Express.
Telangana is not paying stipends in three private and two government colleges. Others include Andhra Pradesh (four government institutes), Uttar Pradesh (three government colleges), Tamil Nadu (three private colleges), Assam (two government colleges), Madhya Pradesh (two private colleges), and Delhi (two private colleges), as per an RTI reply dated April 29.
According to The New Indian Express, the response was to an RTI filed by Dr Babu, who has been pursuing the issue since last year and had sought the names of medical colleges not paying stipends to their interns.
The Kerala-based RTI activist filed another RTI on April 2, seeking the NMC’s stance on such medical colleges, and was informed that “NMC is the regulatory body which issues guidelines, regulations from time to time.”
