MBBS Bond Policy: PGIMS Rohtak resident doctors to withdraw OPD services from tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) has decided to withdraw all Outpatient Department (OPD) services from tomorrow, November 24. The students of Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak have been protesting against the Haryana MBBS bond policy for admission to government medical colleges for nearly three weeks now.

The RDA on November 21 warned to withdraw all services for an indefinite period of time if the officials did not give concrete response on the Rs 10 lakh bond policy. Despite multiple meetings with the delegation and a symbolic pen down protest which was observed on November 19, 21, 22 and 23, the students did not receive a “satisfactory response”.

“We are hereby withdrawing all our services from OPD, wards and elective OT from November 24, 2022. If the government and competent authorities do not give any positive response in 48 hours then emergency services will be withdrawn,” the resident doctors said in a letter addressed to the director of PGIMS, Rohtak.

The letter further said, “The MBBS students of Haryana have been protesting peacefully over a period of three weeks in this unforgiving weather regarding the appalling bond policy which will halt their future aspirations, demoralize their virtues…”

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As per the 2020 policy, the government said that a bond of Rs 10 lakh annually must be signed by students pursuing MBBS course in government medical colleges and that the bond would be a prerequisite for getting a government job.

On November 2, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar announced that the students need not pay a bond amount of Rs 10 lakh. Instead, they will now only have to enter into a bond-cum-loan agreement of the amount with the college and the concerned bank.