LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday made 10 years of medical service mandatory for post-graduation medical students in the state health department.
Anyone failing to complete the mandatory service period and leaving the service would be fined Rs 1 crore.
Elaborating on the decision further, Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Health, Amit Mohan Prasad said that the decision was applicable to those students who were pursuing the post-graduation course in state medical colleges.
The ACS added that anyone leaving the course in between would be debarred from the PG degree course for the next three years.
The sources in the health department claimed that the state government took the decision to fill the shortfall of specialist doctors in government hospitals. The order was circulated on December 9 and now it has reached all the hospitals.
It may be noted that UP has around 18,000 sanctioned posts for doctors in government hospitals and against it over 13,000 doctors are working with a shortfall of around 30%.
Moreover, with the present order, those MBBS doctors who have been serving in rural areas for a year would be given a weightage of 10 marks in NEET for PG courses. Similarly, those who are serving for two years in rural areas would get a weightage of 20 marks and those who have completed three years of service in rural areas would get a benefit of 30 marks.
These doctors would also be allowed to take admission in any diploma along with a PG course.
In 2018, the Uttar Pradesh government had introduced two years Compulsory Rural Service Bond also in medical courses.
As per the guidelines, MBBS/BDS students must fill a designated bond of Rs 10 lakh, MD/MS students Rs 40 lakh, PG Diploma/MDS students Rs 20 Lakh, and DM/MCh students Rs 1 crore, in case any medical student acts contrary to the bond.
This rule was passed in compliance with the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill which was passed to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a new body.