Full Stipend Henceforth: MRMC Residents Call off Strike following Assurance of Investigation of Previously Retracted Amount
Kalaburgi: The postgraduate resident doctors at Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College (MRMC) called off their strike yesterday after the college authorities assured the students of conducting a fair investigation of the previously retracted amount of stipend.
Apart from this, the medicos have also been assured to be paid full stipend henceforth. The authorities also agreed that the pending amount would be credited to the accounts of the students.
Allegedly, even though the college management was paying stipend to the resident doctors, most of the amount is being retracted by the authorities using some signed cheques which are taken from the postgraduate medical students beforehand.
Protesting against this, the resident doctors at the medical college had been on strike since Tuesday. Yesterday, the college authorities agreed to fulfill some of the demands of the residents including payment of full stipend henceforth, crediting pending stipend amount etc. The college authorities also assured to conduct internal enquiry regarding any previously withdrawn stipend amount.
"Undersigned is unaware of the previously withdrawn stipend amount. This issue is being investigated after Post Graduates have submitted letter for the first time on this issue on 19-02-2024. Internal enquiry will be done from next week and will be addressed accordingly," the college administration had assured.
However, the PG medicos were insisting on another one of the demands that the college will not put any unnecessary extra financial charges on the students other than the fee prescribed by the Karnataka Examinations Authority. Further, the resident doctors also demanded a clarification in writing with an assurance that the authorities will return to them the withdrawn amount of the stipend. Therefore, considering the response from the management as "half-positive", the resident doctors decided to continue with their strike.
Finally, the strike was called off by the resident doctors with an assurance that the investigation of the previous withdrawals would be fair, sources at the medical college informed Medical Dialogues.
It was alleged that the college management directed the PG medicos to open separate bank accounts in a specific bank. They were also being forced to give signed cheque books to the authorities. The college management was paying Rs 45,000 to the first year PG medicos, Rs 50,000 to the second year PG medical students and Rs 55,000 per month to those who are in their third years.
However, after crediting the stipend amount in their account, the money was allegedly being systematically withdrawn from the signed cheques and the doctors were being allowed to keep only a fraction of it.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the alleged stipend scam at the medical college was recently raised by a Right to Information (RTI) activist Sharanabasappa Ambesinghe.
Alleging that postgraduate medical students are not being paid a full stipend by Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College, run by Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society (HKES), for the last several years, the RTI activist had demanded police intervention in the matter.
He demanded that the Kalaburagi Police should take cognisance of the issue, register a case against the college authorities and conduct an investigation into the alleged irregularities.
