Ups bond for MBBS students from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5lakh; levies Rs 10 lakh bond for PG medical students, who dont want to work for 3 yrs in rural areas.
State government has decided to increase the bond value for MBBS students from Rs1.5 lakh to Rs5 lakh, with the hope that this will dissuade qualified doctors in rural areas of Gujarat to move to urban pastures. It has also introduced bond of Rs10 lakh for the post-graduate (PG) medical students. MBBS and PG students, studying into the govt or grant-in-aid medical colleges at nominal fees are supposed to do their internship in the state government-run health centres. As these centres are mostly located in rural areas, 70% of MBBS students studying in government-run institutes prefer to pay up Rs1.5 lakh than go there for internship.
Talking about the move government spokesperson and state health minister Nitin Patel said, “State government was well aware of this practice by MBBS students, who would opt out of their rural internship by paying the bond amount. As a result of this malpractice, rural areas suffer from lack of qualified doctors. Therefore, in a bid to curb this practice, we have increased the bond value from Rs1.5 lakh to Rs5 lakh for three years of services in rural areas. We hope this way we can retain more MBBS students in rural areas as interns.”
He further said the govt wants to make specialized doctors available for the rural masses and thus introduced the Rs10 lakh bond for PG students studying in government medical colleges. “They will need to provide their services at the government hospitals in rural areas for 3 years. If they will opt out of it, they will need to pay the bond money,” the minister said.
Justifying that the bond amount at PG level is moderate as compared to other states of the country, Patel said, “States have their own criteria. Some provide less stipend and charge less amount as bond, some others give good stipends and keep the bond amount high. Maharashtra has Rs62,000 as tuition fee, Rs4,000 as hostel fee and a bond value is Rs50 lakh while they provide stipends of Rs29,133. Rajasthan has only Rs3.5 lakh bond, but they pay only Rs 20,000 as stipend. In Gujarat, till now, we did not have any bond at the PG level and paid them Rs28,000 as stipend,” he said.
Modi to inaugurate ‘Knowledge Consortium’ today
Chief minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly-constructed building of Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat (KCG) near Physical Research Laboratory at Ahmedabad on Thursday. KCG is claimed to be the first-of-its-kind unique centre of higher studies has been set up on a 7.5-acre campus. Prior to this Modi will attend the ground breaking ceremony of its hostel building, which will be built by Shree Modh Vanik Modi Gnati Milkat Trust, Ambaji. The vice president of the trust, Dahyabhai Modi said that the hostel will be have 80 rooms with a capacity of 300 students.
As Appeared in DNA