Medical students of Trivandrum Medical College found a novel way to express their protest, by sending individual letters addressed to the Health Minister. If everything goes according to plan, the Health Minister’s office should receive at least 5,000 letters this week. The protest is against the imposition of a 3-year bonded service over the medical student community. According to the recently issued government order every medical student would have to do bonded service after their course MBBS, MD or superspeciality. The students alleged that the bonded candidates are posted in Medical Colleges and Community Health Centres. The students pointed out that the government wants to obtain cheap labour and not meet the rural health needs. While the government is claimed to have adopted this plan to meet the needs of rural community, the students said that the current PSC list shows a different story. The 643 vacancies can easily be filled by the government if they had shortlisted the nearly 2,000 candidates who have qualified the examination. The student community also pointed out that there is no reluctance among doctors to take up public service, provided they are selected through PSC exams. As many as 3,940 doctors had appeared for the 2010 PSC exam, out of which only 685 were called for interview. Similar action has been taken in all medical colleges.
Source : IBN Live
