Around 500 doctors in Bihar, who completed their post graduate (PG) course from state-run institutions this year, are set to move the Patna high court next week over the delay in execution of their three-year mandatory bond of serving the Bihar government, according to some of the aggrieved medical practitioners.
Dr Ajinkya Gautam (28), who did his masters of surgery (MS) degree in orthopaedics from Patna’s Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), has already served a notice to the government through his counsel on November 17.
“The 14-day notice period will expire on Saturday (December 3), and we will file the case on Monday (December 5),” said Dr Aishwarya Singh, who did his doctor of medicine (MD) degree from Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH).
Both Singh and Gautam are from 2019-22 batch .
“The government is unnecessarily delaying our posting after we completed our PG courses six months back, in May this year,” said Dr Singh.
“The government first delayed conducting our examinations, which were finally held in June, when the regulator, National Medical Commission (NMC), stipulates that the period of obtaining MD and MS postgraduate degree shall be three completed years, including the period of examination. It also delayed announcement of our results, which were declared on August 30. We have since been waiting for our posting with the Bihar government,” he said.
“Our last monthly stipend of ₹82,000, as final year PG students, has stopped since June. The government delay in notifying our posting makes us ineligible for the monthly remuneration of ₹85,000, which we will get as a senior resident doctor during the first year of our three-year bond period. The government is encouraging unemployment because we cannot work anywhere else as our original MBBS marksheet remains with our respective medical colleges till we complete the bond or pay the government ₹25 lakh in lieu of it,” Dr Singh said.
Papu Kumar Saifi, a MD in medicine from NMCH, said the state health department had only been giving verbal assurances for the last one month about notifying within one week the posting of PG doctors who have passed their final exams this year.
“The government is playing with our future by delaying in notifying our posting for the bond period. The government should relax the duration of our bond by as many months as it delays notifying our posting beyond our academic session, which ended in May. We should not be made to suffer for no fault of ours,” said Dr Saifi.
The first time Bihar notified the posting of such doctors was in mid-August 2020, the first year of the PG bond system after its notification on April 15, 2017. The results then were declared in July, after the culmination of the academic session in May 2020. The session was derailed in 2021, affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, when the exams were held in September 2021, results declared in December 2021 and the postings notified in February this year.
Bihar has a total 496 PG degree seats and 19 PG diploma seats under 50% state and Central quota each.
