Hundreds Of Medical Students At SCB In Odisha’s Cuttack Protest NEET Counselling Delay

Cuttack: ‘Don’t spoil the future of doctors, the society has to pay for this.’ ‘Doctors are also humans, don’t overburden them’. These were some of the placards that could be seen at SCB Medical College & Hospital here on Thursday as over 400 PG students of the college staged protest against the ‘inordinate’ delay in NEET-PG counselling.
As the residents stayed put in front of the Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo statue on the college campus, emergency and outdoor services at the medical college hospital were affected, though the students claimed there were seniors to take care of the patients and healthcare services were not affected.
“We are not protesting to disrupt the services… it will not be affected,” a student said.
“We are not protesting for personal reasons. We are not even blaming anyone. We just want to press that the NEET-PG counselling should be expedited,” said another student.
They alleged students who had cleared the exam and qualified for the counselling were having to wait indefinitely and this was causing immense mental stress to them. “Who will be responsible for the mental stress they are currently going through?” they asked.
Protests are being held at various places, including Delhi, demanding immediate holding of the NEET-PG counselling.
Another student said, “At the time of coronavirus we always need more medical hands. The counselling will pave way for new recruitments that is only going to ease the burden on the medical fraternity.”
The IMA’s Junior Doctors’ Network had on Monday extended solidarity with the resident doctors and wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya demanding fast-tracking of the court hearing to expedite NEET PG 2021 counselling.
It must be noted that the counselling was scheduled from October 25, but was postponed after the Supreme Court’s direction. The SC will hear a plea challenging Centre and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC)’s decision to provide 27 per cent reservation to OBC and 10 per cent to EWS students in all India quota medical seats. MCC will conduct the counselling after the apex court takes a decision on the plea.