rural medical officers (RMOs) in state will boycott work from August 1

[dr kamal]

 
POST-GRADUATION QUOTA ROW
RMOs to boycott work from Aug 1
Gagan K Teja
Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 14
The rural medical officers (RMOs) in state will boycott work from August 1 since the government has denied them postgraduate quota in all state medical colleges.

The RMOs are going to stop sending data on various ongoing surveys to the Health department from July 21 onwards.

Meanwhile, the decision of boycotting work at Suvidha centres across Punjab has been put on hold till the next meeting on July 21.

The decision was taken today during a meeting of the Rural Medical Services Association, Punjab, presided over by State president Dr Aslam Parvez.

The association officials condemned the various tactics adopted by the state government in preventing RMOs from availing the 60 per cent PG quota seats for admission to MD/MS courses despite being given the permission to do so by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

They alleged that the government did not let RMOs, who had cleared the post graduate entrance examination PG NEET 2013, attend the counselling sessions.

Dr JP Narula, senior vice-president of the association said the Department of Health, the Department of Medical Education and Research and Baba Farid University of Health Sciences connived with each other to stop RMOs from availing the PG quota.

“First the government postponed the counselling sesson on one pretext or the other. Thereafter, when we got interim relief from the High Court, the government filed a petition in the Supreme Court.

“Now that the SC has given the petition a case status, the state colleges announced the counselling date for July 17. If the SC doesn’t rule in our favour, then we wouldn’t have enough time to file a review petition,” said Dr Amanpreet Kaur, executive member of the female wing of the Rural Medical Services Association, Punjab.

She said that a few people were exploiting the state machinery and that the matter should be brought to the notice of Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister.

“Over 1,200 posts are allotted to us while the Health Department has got 800 posts in rural areas. The government should divide the quota seats as per the number of posts in the respective departments,” said state press secretary Dr Manish Gupta.

The rural doctors passed a resolution to demand a division of the 60 per cent quota seats as per ratio of the posts. They said that 36 per cent seats be reserved for RMOs while 24 per cent seats be reserved for doctors working in the Health Department so that no conflict of interest arises.

The RMOs also demanded that they be shifted, absorbed, transferred or sent on deputation to the Health Department after they clear the PG entrance. The RMOs said they were willing to accept the terms and conditions applicable to PCMS doctors.

RMOS’ DEMANDS

The government should divide the number of reserved seats
Thirty-six per cent of the seats be reserved for RMOs whiel 24 per cent for doctors working in the Health Department
They should be shifted, absorbed, transferred or sent on deputation to the Health Department after they clear the PG entrance