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Ludhiana: Interns protest for increase in stipend
The union urged authorities to take prompt and favourable action on their demands, warning that continued neglect could lead to further escalation of protests
The Veterinary Students’ Union of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) staged a protest here on Monday, demanding hike in the internship stipend for veterinary interns, calling the current amount “inadequately low and unjustified.”
They stressed that the stipend was not in line with inflation, nor comparable to what MBBS and BDS interns in Punjab receive. According to them, their ₹15,000 stipend should be hiked to at least ₹22,000.
The union further highlighted that interns at neighbouring veterinary universities, including LUVAS (Haryana), RAJUVAS (Rajasthan) and BHU (Varanasi), are paid higher stipends.
Union members claimed that interns’ representatives met Punjab’s finance minister on August 3 who reportedly assured them of a meeting with university officials and representatives of the students union. According to them, they were later told that this meeting would be held on September 4. “However, on August 18, we discovered that a meeting had already been conducted on the same day at the minister’s office where university officials were present but student representatives weren’t informed about it in advance. We were denied the opportunity to present our case,” the union said in its statement.
The protest was held at the teaching veterinary clinical complex (TVCC), GADVASU campus, from 9 am to 1 pm.
The union urged authorities to take prompt and favourable action on their demands, warning that continued neglect could lead to further escalation of protests.
GADVASU vice chancellor Jatinder Paul Singh said, “We have already recommended a hike for the interns to the government. The process is going on and the government is also considering this.”
