Monday, November 12, 2001
Payyanur: The Joint Action Council (JAC) of Pariyaram medical college students, house surgeons, former students and their parents, has launched an indefinite agitation to get the much-awaited Medical Council of India (MCI) recognition for the College. While the house surgeons began their protest on Friday, the students went on an indefinite stir from Saturday, including boycotting all academic activities, urging the authorities to meet their demands for getting recognition for the college, as per the union chairman, Shri T.V. Murali.
Shri Murali said the JAC, comprising the College House Surgeons' Association, Alumni Association, and Parents Representatives, besides the College Union, would go ahead with the agitation till the demands were met. The protest, however, would be peaceful and the normal hospital functioning would not be disrupted by the agitators.
A sum of Rs. 24 crores was required immediately to set right the deficiencies pointed out by a two-member MCI team, which recently inspected the College; adding that the College had been facing various problems, including acute staff shortage, since it started functioning in 1995. “The State Government should take a serious view of the situation and cannot allow the issue to remain so anymore,'' said Shri Murali.
The JAC representative said the College Students and House Surgeons did not believe in political pressure yielding results as the issue remained the same even after a new Government had come to power. Legal battles apart, the Students and House Surgeons had gone on protest on earlier occasions too and all assurances towards finding a solution had been elusive. Shri Murali said the MCI team, which recently conducted a thorough inspection of the college to find out if the infrastructure deserved MCI recognition, had pointed out, among other things, staff shortage, shifting of operation theatre to the main complex, setting up of a power laundry and the need for a Centralised Sterilisation unit. ``As it is, no concrete steps have been taken to meet these deficiencies,'' he said.
“The first batch of students who have passed out have no recognition and the next batch continues to suffer the same fate now,'' he said, adding that the protest activities would include a Secretariat Dharna and indefinite fast to urge the authorities to initiate prompt action.
The council activists took out a procession at Kannur on Saturday to proclaim their resolve to go on indefinite stir.
