Demanding immediate commencement of work on constructing new building on the Government Siddha Medical College premises here, a group of students staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday.
They said that the State government allotted Rs. 5 crore for construction of additional buildings for the college. However, the work could not start as a student had filed a petition in the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court with a prayer that no fresh construction on the cramped college premises should be allowed and that shifting the entire college to a spacious location would be the right solution to pave the way for the growth of the college.
The protesting students also charged that absence of an X-ray technician in the college was forcing poor patients to rely on private centres for radiological investigations prescribed by the doctors at the hospital attached to the college. The ultra sonogram could not be used as a qualified technician was yet to be appointed. “Indefinite closure of paediatric inpatient ward is hampering quality of treatment given to children,” said G.S.S. Jayakannan, president of Students’ Welfare Association of the college.
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The protestors said the quality of siddha formulations and the quantity of medicine stocked at the hospital were not up to the mark. “There is no laboratory for pharmacology, microbiology, pathology and toxicology departments and absence of professor for modern medicine affects quality of teaching. To put an end to all these problems, the college authorities and the government should take immediate steps to find an amicable solution in the case pending before the Madras High Court and start construction of additional buildings soon to create more facilities,” said Dr. Jayakannan.