Cabinet proposes hike in bond amount in Medical colleges

The State Cabinet has proposed a steep hike in the bond amount for the MBBS and MD students of the medical colleges of the State. The Cabinet took decision to raise the amount of bond to `two crore from `30 lakh for MBBS students and `2.5 Crore from `15 lakh for the Post Graduate (PG) medical students. The MBBS students enter into a bond with medical education department to serve in Uttarakhand for a period of three years. On entering the bond these students have to pay only ten percent of the annual fees during their MBBS course. The PG students enter into a bond of two years with the Government. 

The medical education director Dr Ashutosh Sayana told The Pioneer that the objective of the hike in bond amount is to ensure that only serious candidates enter into bond with the department. He explained that many students enter into a bond and instead of serving in a Government hospital in a remote area pay the penalty amount which is only 15 lakh for PG students and 30 lakh for MBBS students, this practice would get stopped once they enter into a bond with much higher penalty amount.

It is worth mentioning here that many students after completion of their MBBS courses join the Government job and abscond from their duties after some time. The lack of enforcement of the conditions written in the bond on part of the medical health department is one of the prime cause that many such absconders are left off the hook.

The MBBS students of the Haldwani medical college are entering into a bond from the year 2004 while the students of the first batch of the Government medical college Srinagar singed the bond in the year 2008. However due to lack of stringent penalty and lackadaisical attitude of health department officials in implementing the provisions of the bond, the state health services did not get the desired benefit of the services of these doctors.