FORDA urges Mandaviya to revoke ‘bond policy’ amid medicos’ protest

NEW DELHI: The Federation of Resident Doctors‘ Association (FORDA) on Monday urged Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to intervene in the ongoing agitation of Haryana MBBS students who are on a sit-in protest against the state government’s policy mandating them to enter into a Rs 40 lakh bond during the undergraduate medical programme. 

A delegation from the resident doctors’ body met with the officials from the central ministry and submitted a letter addressed to Mandaviya where they highlighted that the state bond policy which has been at the centre of multiple incidents of agitation in the medical community will act as a “major deterrent” in the candidates choosing medical profession as their career.

According to the Haryana government’s bond policy introduced in November 2020, MBBS doctors have to pay an amount of Rs 40 lakh as a bond to the state government for admission to a government college.  However, after facing protest from the medical students, the state government tweaked the policy and announced that the students need not to pay the bond amount during admission,  instead, they will now have to enter into a bond-cum-loan agreement of the same amount with the college and the concerned bank.

“Introducing such a policy at this time is a big blow to the candidates wishing to pursue medical in Haryana by putting a huge financial burden on their shoulders. No other state-sponsored courses are treated with such an unsympathetic attitude and it’s almost tyrannical in nature,” the FORDA letter read. “We suggest that the perils of this notification are addressed and the bond policy is done away with,” it added.

In a show of solidarity with the MBBS students in Haryana who are protesting against the bond policy, doctors at various government-run hospitals in the national capital on Monday wore black ribbons at work against the bond policy and allegedly manhandling of the agitating students by the state police.