Medical college is not paying full stipend to PG students, says RTI activist

Stating that the Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College run by Hyderabad Karnataka Education Society (HKES) has not been paying full stipend to postgraduate doctors for the last several years, Right to Information (RTI) activist Sharanabasappa Ambesinghe demanded that the Kalaburagi Police register a case against the college and investigate the irregularities.

Addressing a press conference in Kalaburagi recently, Mr. Ambesinghe produced a memorandum written by postgraduation students to HKES president, demanding regular payment of stipend.

Postgraduation students in the college are paid ₹45,000 stipend for the first year, ₹50,000 for the second year and ₹55,000 for third year. Mr. Ambesinghe said that technically, the stipend is shown as fully paid on paper, but the students are receiving only a small amount of it.

He said that the college deposits stipend amount in bank accounts of students. However, it later withdraws the amount from their accounts through cheques collected from all of them in advance. And, the college has it on record to prove that the stipend amount has been paid regularly.

Every month, the college has shown credited ₹45,000 stipend for each student of first year but it has later withdrawn ₹37,000 from their accounts. A sum of ₹50,000 a month has been shown credited into accounts of each student of second year but the college has withdrawn ₹40,000 each later. Similarly, third year students have received ₹55,000 each as stipend and later their accounts have been debited ₹43,000 each, he said.

Mr. Ambesinghe said that a complaint was made against the college about irregularities in stipend payment for postgraduate students on February 8. But the police have failed to register the case yet, he added.