Agitating MBBS students reject govt’s new notification on bond policy

The medical students have been protesting since November 1 inside the PGIMS campus, demanding rollback of the bond policy

: The protesting MBBS students at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS) here has rejected a new notification of the Haryana government pertaining to the contentious bond policy, hinting that they might take legal recourse to get justice.

Agitating MBBS students reject govt’s new notification on bond policy

The medical students have been protesting since November 1 inside the PGIMS campus, demanding rollback of the bond policy.

According to the Haryana government’s bond policy introduced in November 2020, the MBBS doctors have to pay an amount of ₹ 40 lakh as a bond to the state government for admission to a government college.

According to the new notification dated November 7, “all candidates completing their MBBS course from government medical colleges in the state of Haryana, shall have to execute a tripartite bond at the time of admission amounting to ₹ 36.40 lakh in government medical colleges and ₹ 32.80 lakh in government aided medical colleges i.e MAMC, Agroha which will be signed at the time of admission between the candidate, bank and government.”

“The said loan/bond shall be implemented at the end of MBBS course if the candidate does not opt to serve in the government of Haryana upon selection. The moratorium shall be extended in case of candidate who wishes to pursue post-graduation,” the notification stated.

Commenting on the notification, Priya Kaushik, third-year MBBS student at PGIMS, said that it does not serve the purpose and now third-party banks have also come between students and the government.

“The new notification fails to reveal at what interest the students will have to repay loan amount /bond sum to the bank. If the government wants to implement the new notification, it should provide job guarantees and exclude the bank from the bond agreement required to be signed by the students,” she added.

The other protesters said they were likely to take legal recourse to get justice. On Thursday, the students carried out a protest march and submitted a memorandum to the Rohtak deputy commissioner.

“The chief minister had assured us that the FIR lodged against 300 MBBS students will be revoked but it is intact now,” the students said.

As many as 300 MBBS students, protesting against the bond policy, were booked for rioting after they were forcibly removed from the protest site inside the PGIMS campus in the wee hours on November 5 ahead of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s visit to the institute.

PGIMS writes to protesters’ parents

The PGIMS authorities have started sending emails to the parents of agitating MBBS students, while issuing a warning that disciplinary action can be initiated against their wards.

“You are hereby informed that your son/daughter/ward are agitating in front of the Director Office, PGIMS, Rohtak since the last many days which has disrupted the smooth functioning of the administrative office, public work and MBBS admission counselling 2022. As assured by the government, all the concerns and apprehensions regarding the new bond policy have been addressed and resolved,” states one such letter.

“MBBS students of admission batches 2020-21 and 2021-22 are not attending their classes, being marked absent and their duration of course may get prolonged as per National Medical Commission norms. In that case, they will not be eligible for their examination as per schedule. Students are obstructing government office work. This entails them liable for disciplinary action which may be rustication from the college and expulsion from the hostel,” added the letter.

IMA extends support

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also extended support to the medical students at PGIMS and urged the Haryana government to scrap the bond policy or amend it.

“The nation is in shock to note that while exercising the democratic rights to oppose such moves, students became a victim of barbaric police action, where female doctors were manhandled, detained by the state police and the gathering was showered with water cannons on a cold night,” the IMA said in a statement.

Such treatment by the state government is deeply discouraging, reprehensible and reflects an insensitive and callous attitude, it said, adding that it is disrespectful to the democratic peaceful protest.