Expressing its support to the ongoing protest by ‘service’ postgraduate (PG) medical students across Tamil Nadu against the recent appointment of doctors allegedly made in violation of norms, Doctors Association for Social Equality (DASE) on Tuesday urged the government to cancel the appointments and conduct fresh recruitment as per norms.
Speaking to the media after addressing the protesting students, G.R. Ravindranath, general secretary, DASE, said the recent recruitment of around 500 doctors through a walk-in interview was done without adhering to rules, including providing for reservation.
“Tamil Nadu often takes pride in having a Medical Recruitment Board to ensure that appointments are done in a proper manner. However, the recent recruitment was full of irregularities,” he said.
He said the government failed to follow the established procedure of giving preference to ‘service’ PGs, who joined the courses in government medical colleges through service quota after working in government hospitals in rural areas.
“They have to be given preference and only the remaining vacancies should be filled with others. However, the government hid the number of vacancies during the recruitment made earlier this year, and showed around 750 vacancies for recruitment in November, which were filled mainly with postgraduates from private colleges and those outside Tamil Nadu through the walk-in interview,” he said.
Dr. Ravindranath also blamed the government for failing to hold talks with the protesting students, who had been on strike for about two weeks. The government must immediately listen to the legitimate demands of the students, he stressed.
Earlier, addressing the students, he appealed to them to fight against various measures being taken by the Central and State governments to privatise healthcare.
The protesting students carried out a rally on Panagal Road in the morning to highlight their demands. One of the protesting students said they expected the Health and Family Welfare Department Secretary to talk with them on Monday, but were disappointed that it did not happen.
