RMC students and staff at loggerheads

RAIPUR: As authorities at Raipur Medical College (RMC) get ready to issue a show cause notice to 164 contractual doctors, who boycotted Medical Council of India’s inspection on April 30, the medicos are all set with their line of defense. They say that their action was justified as due notice of boycott had been given.
Talking to TOI, Raipur Medical College dean Dr A Chandrakar said he had been instructed by Director Medical Education (DME) to issue notices to these doctors.
Contractual doctors claimed their boycott wasn’t illegal or unjustified, as they had given due notice and their demands for higher wages have been pending for a number of years. Assistant professor Dr Narendra said all doctors would jointly respond and insist that the authorities were well aware of the boycott but did nothing to prevent it.
Meanwhile, some other contractual doctors told TOI on condition of anonymity, "We were not called for a meeting or requested to call off our boycott." They accused authorities of deliberately trying to precipitate matters. "We don't want to harm this institution in any manner but we are helpless as there is no one to listen to us," said another doctor claiming that their wages have not been hiked for last six years.
The boycott has jeopardised chances of recognition of 50 MBBS seats by MCI, which has noted that the college did not have the required strength of doctors. Medical Teacher Association president Dr Vishnu Dutt said it would be a great loss for the college if MCI takes a stern stand and denies approval of seats on grounds of deficiency of staff. He, however, agreed that demand of the contractual staff was justified and claimed that higher salaries were being given in medical colleges in Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur and Jagdalpur.
Senior officials of the health department denied any indiscrimination and claimed that higher salaries were being paid to doctors at other medical colleges as finding doctors to work in those areas is difficult. "Who is stopping these doctors from going and working in Jagdalpur or Bilaspur on higher salaries? They don’t do so as they want to stay in Raipur only," said the official.