Witness BJMC students’ yet another productive initiative to support the stipend hike protests
By Vinam Pachkhede
Pune – All medical interns from around Maharashtra have been raising their voice against the unjust and low stipends (Rs 6000) provided by the state. All have their own, different ways to back the protest and show their discontent.
A few days earlier the Pune’s BJ Medical College (BJMC) had set up a blood donation camp on the protest day. Their camp got a huge response from people. The total of 90 blood bags were collected. But still, the government has ignored all their acts and requests and just given them false hope.
Hence, the Association of state medical interns (ASMI) and all medical interns of Maharashtra have decided to continue the strike. For that, the BJMC students came up with another productive and fruitful idea of – ‘Swachta Abhiyan’. This event took place at the Sassoon Hospital, Pune. As many as 150 interns and students participated in the event.
In 2015 after many such protests the interns were promised Rs. 11,000 per month by the state, but they are still receiving Rs. 6000. The Association of State Medical Interns (ASMI) had a meeting with the Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan, the Finance Ministry and the Decorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) on May 2, 2018. In the meeting, the authorities asked for the period of 15 days to work of their demand. It’s been 40 days since, and no actions have been taken with the issues’ regard.
On Saturday, state finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said that the medical education should pay the students from existing budget allocation to the department.
