About 400 students of Madras Medical College, Government Stanley Medical College and Government Kilpauk Medical College staged a demonstration on Tuesday, demanding that the Central government withdraw the one-year compulsory rural posting for medical students.
The Centre has made a one-year rural posting mandatory for those who have completed their MBBS and are pursuing a post-graduate degree, citing a massive shortage of doctors in rural areas.
The students however said this robbed the State government of its right to appoint doctors to State government-run hospitals.
They also said doctors working in rural health centres should be given separate reservations in the postgraduate medical education system. The students also demanded that doctors working in hilly and tribal areas be awarded two marks for each year in the postgraduate medical entrance examination.
