07-14-2006, 09:17 AM
<b>Fresh row at AIIMS</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->New Delhi, July 13: Resident doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences may not get their stipend for the days they were on strike, but will probably not have to serve an extra term to rake in much more in private hospitals.
AIIMS director P. Venugopal today reversed yesterdayâs decision taken by the <b>registrar to hold back degrees of those doctors who are short of completing their stipulated number of working days because of the 17-day strike in protest against the proposed backward class quota in May.</b>
<b>Eighty doctors who were to finish their residency at AIIMS this month yesterday faced the prospect of spending another term here, after registrar V.K. Gupta refused to give them their completion certificates.</b>
<b>âThey will simply have to complete their contract requirements,â he had said.</b>
Venugopal today issued a notice asking Gupta to ârelease the certificates and adjust the incomplete days of work against extra hours of workâ.
<b>âWe are really thankful to Dr Venugopal. My career may have been ruined,â said a relieved Rajeev Ranjan of the Residents Doctorsâ Association (RDA). </b>
Ranjan has a job waiting in Washington but would have had to leave it and spend another term at AIIMS if Venugopal did not intervene. âAbroad particularly, an extended degree is looked down upon. Nor can I explain the reasons,â Ranjan said.
But Venugopal may soon have to explain his decision to the health ministry.
Sources in the ministry â locked in a tussle with the AIIMS director â said âno one, including health minister Anbumani Ramadossâ, can release completion certificates without fulfilment of the contract criteria.
The contract, a copy of which is available with The Telegraph, binds all resident doctors at AIIMS to three years of work, including teaching.
A shortage in the number of working days can only be compensated âagainst leavesâ. If a doctor does not have leaves in store, the âregistration is to be extended for the periodâ. There is also no provision of adjustment against extra working hours.
As no classes are on right now â because students are on vacation â the affected doctors would have had to spend an extra term at AIIMS, had their degrees been held back. A 48-day strike in 1996 at AIIMS for better hostel conditions had also led to degrees of several resident doctors extended.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
AIIMS director P. Venugopal today reversed yesterdayâs decision taken by the <b>registrar to hold back degrees of those doctors who are short of completing their stipulated number of working days because of the 17-day strike in protest against the proposed backward class quota in May.</b>
<b>Eighty doctors who were to finish their residency at AIIMS this month yesterday faced the prospect of spending another term here, after registrar V.K. Gupta refused to give them their completion certificates.</b>
<b>âThey will simply have to complete their contract requirements,â he had said.</b>
Venugopal today issued a notice asking Gupta to ârelease the certificates and adjust the incomplete days of work against extra hours of workâ.
<b>âWe are really thankful to Dr Venugopal. My career may have been ruined,â said a relieved Rajeev Ranjan of the Residents Doctorsâ Association (RDA). </b>
Ranjan has a job waiting in Washington but would have had to leave it and spend another term at AIIMS if Venugopal did not intervene. âAbroad particularly, an extended degree is looked down upon. Nor can I explain the reasons,â Ranjan said.
But Venugopal may soon have to explain his decision to the health ministry.
Sources in the ministry â locked in a tussle with the AIIMS director â said âno one, including health minister Anbumani Ramadossâ, can release completion certificates without fulfilment of the contract criteria.
The contract, a copy of which is available with The Telegraph, binds all resident doctors at AIIMS to three years of work, including teaching.
A shortage in the number of working days can only be compensated âagainst leavesâ. If a doctor does not have leaves in store, the âregistration is to be extended for the periodâ. There is also no provision of adjustment against extra working hours.
As no classes are on right now â because students are on vacation â the affected doctors would have had to spend an extra term at AIIMS, had their degrees been held back. A 48-day strike in 1996 at AIIMS for better hostel conditions had also led to degrees of several resident doctors extended.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->