Bond Penalty of Rs 30 lakh for MBBS doctors, Rs 1 Crore for Specialists in Meghalaya

Shillong: The State-sponsored MBBS doctors will have to pay Rs 30 lakh and the specialist doctors will be liable to pay Rs 1 crore as bond penalty if they fail to serve in the State after completing their course, the Health Minister of Meghalaya Ampareen Lyngdoh recently stated.

“If you are forfeiting and not coming back to your state to practice you have to pay or repay back the bond…There is a recommended slab by the Government of India. I am told it has been revised to Rs 30 lakh for an MBBS doctor and Rs 1 crore for a specialist doctor," said the Health Minister.

Apart from this, the Minister has further clarified that it will now be a must for all the state-sponsored doctors in the State to register themselves with the State Medical Council (SMC) of Meghalaya.

The Minister referred to the fact that the sponsored doctors were earlier registering outside the State and added that mandatory registration with the SMC would help the department keep tabs on the MBBS students.

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“Right now, any doctor clearing the MBBS course goes to another state for the procurement of a licence. This will now be done by our own medical council,” she told The Shillong Times.

As per the latest media report by Meghalaya Monitor, referring to the issue of bonded doctors who are forfeiting the sponsorship and are not willing to serve in the State, Minister Lyngdoh told the reporters that this is not a new discussion and for this very reason the Health Department of the State has come up with Meghalaya Medical Council (MMC) to address the issues concerning the problem and also the issue of shortage of doctors in the State.

“The government of India has a recommended bond, and I am told it was revised to Rs 30 lakh for an MBBP and Rs 1 crore for a specialist a few years ago. Our own SMC will review these matters,” Lyngdoh said while clarifying that those who are not willing to serve in the State would have to repay the bond. She further added that a bond repayment slab was recommended by the previous cabinets

Mentioning that the Department has already taken some preliminary actions the Minister further added that the actions would be stringent from now on. She mentioned, “Recently, many doctors registered and joined the state. Several of them qualified through NEET to go for post-graduation.” The Minister further added that she would have to verify the cut-off date for registering with the SMC.

“The moment we send you out you are a sponsored candidate, your name already goes in and you have to firstly come back to this medical council to register and take your practicing license,” she said.

“Now that we have our own medical council, they will sit and they will engage and they will review all these matters and in fact without sharing with the media we have already taken some preliminary actions and we will now be stringent,” she added.

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