The National Medical Commission (NMC), the sole body monitoring medical education in the country, has decided to conduct a survey among undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students of selffinanced and private medical colleges across states and Union Territories (UT) to ascertain their amount of stipend.

The survey is being carried out under the directions of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The NMC has issued a notice in this regard on Thursday.

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A Google form has been created for this purpose. “It is assured that the identity of all those who will participate in the survey will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone,” the notice states.

There are 34 medical colleges, including 27 government teaching hospitals in Bengal. The private medical colleges have come up in Jadavpur, West Burdwan, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, South 24-Parganas and Birbhum. It may be noted that over the past year until now, medicos from various parts of India had been demanding a hike in their stipends. Bihar, Karnataka,

Telangana are a few examples of states where the stipend hike issue created an uproar. In Bengal a PG student of a government medical college gets around Rs 39,000 per month while it is Rs 28,000 for an intern. For private medical colleges, the monthly stipend for an intern is Rs 12,000 and a PG student gets Rs 30,000.

“Most of private medical colleges do not pay stipends though interns and PG doctors bear a huge workload of patient care services. Nothing is done despite regular protests by junior doctors demanding hike and regular payments of stipend in private healthcare institutes,” said Dr Kabiul Hoque, joint secretary, Kolkata district, Medical Service Centre (MSC)