Haryana govt makes several amends to bond policy in view of demands of striking MBBS students in state

Chandigarh: Keeping in mind the demands of the striking MBBS students, the state government after a detailed discussion with them, has made several important changes in the issue related to the MBBS bond policy. With the new changes, the government has reduced the time limit of the seven-year bond agreement to five years, including postgraduate (PG) education in this time period, eventually making the time limit of the bond two years.

Along with this, the previous bond amount of Rs 40 lakh has now been reduced to Rs 30 lakh and by deducting the fees from this, the amount will come up to about Rs 25 lakh. It has also been decided to give 10 per cent relaxation for girls, excluding the institutional fees. Moreover, it has been decided that in case of any untoward incident with a student studying MBBS, his family will not be bound to pay the bond amount. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had given these instructions for changes after a meeting with the students' delegation.

The state government has taken another important decision of providing a government job (contractual) to the MBBS students within one year of completion of their studies. Also, in the case of a student doing a private job after completing studies and getting a salary less than that given to a medical officer by the government, he will not have to pay the bond amount until his salary would be equal to that of the medical officer or more than that. In such a situation, the government will offer a contractual job to the student.

Notably, the Haryana government has launched several schemes to provide the best health facilities to the people of the state. Along with this, medical colleges are being built in all the districts of the state and government hospitals are also being opened for which the government will require a large number of doctors in the coming times. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that the state government is moving forward with the aim of providing health facilities to every person, especially the needy. He said that during the tenure of the present government, there has been an increase in the number of medical colleges, dental colleges, homeopathic colleges and nursing colleges in the state. In 2014, there were seven medical colleges in the state and MBBS seats were only 700. During the tenure of the present government, six colleges were opened and today the number of MBBS seats has increased to 1,735, he added.