Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Sep 7: The state government has taken a decision to desist from enforcing rural service condition for the medical degree holders for the current year. Therefore, the medical graduates who recently passed out, are at liberty to pay up fine and get exemption from mandatory rural service condition.

Although medical education minister, Dr Sharanaprakash Patil, and health minister, U T Khader, were repeatedly saying that shortage of doctors in primary health centres across the state will be a thing of the past, as those who have completed medical graduation will service three years in rural areas, these claims have turned out to be wrong.

The compulsory rural service clause was in existence even in the past, but the graduates were at liberty to escape from this condition by paying up fine. Even after the fine was hiked in 2011 to ten lac rupees, 15 lac rupees and 25 lac rupees from the existing one lac, three lac, and five lac rupees for MBBS, diploma, and postgraduate candidates to discourage them from avoiding rural service, most of them chose to pay fines. Therefore, the government had made rural service mandatory from this year onward by passing a legislation, and a bill passed towards this end was signed by the President of India on May 29 this year. As per the new law, even those who have completed medical degrees in Comed-K and other quotas have to serve in rural areas for a minimum of one year in Karnataka.

On account of this condition, degree certificates of 54 MBBS graduates and 59 MD degree holders who studied in government medical colleges had not been returned to them even when they opted to pay fines. The candidates had approached the state high court, pointing out that poor, brilliant students from the state are alone subjected to this harassment, while students from outside the state, and those from private and deemed colleges are given exemption by collecting fine from them. After the court orders were passed, all the students got their degree certificates.

Accordingly, the department of health and family welfare has, through a call letter, asked the doctors to attend consultation on specified date and time for being appointed in rural service, and that their placements are being fixed. The candidates who fail to attend duty within 15 days from the orders are ordered to pay fine, thus establishing that rural service is not compulsory this time around.

Health minister, U T Khader, said that rural service could not be made mandatory for the current year as the new law came into force after the result was announced. At the same time, it is said that the finance department also did not give its nod to bear additional burden of Rs 450 crore arising out of the need to pay Rs 32,500 salary per month to medical diploma holders, and Rs 35,000 to postgraduate doctors. Last year, the amount of fine collected from medical graduates stood at Rs 12 crore.