The Hindu : Front Page : Panel reassures medicos

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 29, 2007
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Front Page

Panel reassures medicos

Staff Reporter

— Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

AIRING THEIR GRIEVANCEs: A medico submitting a memorandum to Sambasiva Rao Committee chairman R. Sambasiva Rao on Wednesday.

CHENNAI: Compulsory one-year service in rural areas and extension of medical course period by another year will only be implemented if all stakeholders, including faculty members and students, accept the proposal, Sambasiva Rao Committee chairman R. Sambasiva Rao said here on Wednesday. Addressing the agitating undergraduate medical students and house surgeons at Madras Medical College (MMC), he said, “The decision of the committee will be prospective and not retrospective.”

He invited the students to express their views on the proposal and promised to convey their opinions to Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss. On the students’ queries about the Minister’s reported remark that the proposal would be implemented irrespective of the outcome of the committee’s report, Mr. Rao said he was not aware of it. Under Secretary to the Ministry of Health T.J.S. Chawla and a committee member said that apart from the committee’s report, to be submitted by December-end, several procedures were needed to implement the proposal.

Students who presented the memorandum of demands to Mr. Rao said they had lost hope on the committee. Earlier, the six-member panel led by Mr. Rao conducted a public hearing where medical colleges’ faculty members and parents of students voiced views. Several suggested that the rural service be made optional and those opting for it be provided with incentives.

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