PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
After intern doctors and post-graduate doctors, paramedical interns of Government Doon Medical College staged a protest outside the OPD building on Monday demanding a stipend. The interns said that they had earlier decided to continue the protest till the State administration takes concrete action instead of just giving verbal assurance. However, the protest continued for a few hours and was suspended after assurance from the GDMC principal Dr Geeta Jain and other officials concerned.
GDMC Hospital paramedical interns said that interns of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 batches protested and boycotted work. Batches from 2019 to 2026, mainly 2021 batch, have already passed out. The 2019 to 2021 batches have approached the authorities concerned many times for stipend, but apart from verbal assurance, no action has been taken yet.
They claimed that their annual fees is already high in addition to Rs 8,000 examination charges. Apart from this, paramedical interns perform duties at the hospital OT, radiology and laboratory of OPD in morning, evening and night shifts. Despite this, they do not receive any stipend, which is affecting them financially. They also do not have transport buses, which is an extra financial burden.
There are around 250 paramedical interns in GDMC and about 100 interns from the said batches protested on Monday, while the rest were to protest in rotation, they said.
Paramedical interns further informed that after a few hours of protest, GDMC principal and other officials concerned assured them that a meeting with director, Medical Education, Ashutosh Sayana, will be organised soon. Considering this, they have postponed their protest, the interns said.
They also informed that since a week, paramedical interns of Haldwani and Srinagar medical colleges are also protesting for the same demand and it was continued on Monday.
