Junior Doctors, Medical Students Protest in Bengaluru Demanding Centralised Counselling

Team Udayavani, Mar 5, 2017, 9:53 AM IST

Bengaluru: More than 200 medical students and junior doctors from all medical colleges of Karnataka gathered in front of the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) premises on March 04 to raise their voice of protest against ongoing injustice to medical students. Clad in their aprons, holding placards in their hands, wearing the black ribbon and others were the strength and unity of the students and young doctors, demanding justice against corrupt practices.

The protests coincided with the first day of document verification for PG NEET, being organised hurriedly by the KEA, without proper notifications or wide publicity. The protesters under the banner of Doctors Against Corruption(DAC), supported by the Karnataka State Branch of Indian Medical Association assembled and distributed pamphlets to the public to create awareness about the many short-comings in the current system of seat allotment and other issues regarding medical education. The protest demonstration in the park opposite to the KEA premises was addressed by Dr Prakash C Rao, senior physician and Jyothi A Rao, state President of NFIW.

The delegation of the medicos submitted a memorandum to the authorities at the KEA, signed by the protestors. The demands include wide publicity for the process of counselling and immediate extension of the dates for document verification, centralised counselling for all the medical seats, including the seats in the government, private and deemed university affiliated colleges, providing 70% of all the seats in the private and deemed university affiliated medical colleges to the government quota, and reserving all these 70%seats and all the seats in the government colleges of the state to Kannadiga students, with due provisions for all the social justice norms.

The authorities at the KEA sympathetically heard the demands and assured that the necessary action would be taken at the earliest. The day also witnessed a black ribbon campaign under the banner of DAC and IMA at various medical colleges, with students and staff members wearing the black ribbons to work. Memoranda were submitted to the Deputy Commissioners in many districts by the branches of Indian Medical Association.