Chandigarh, Nov 25 (IANS) Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Friday blamed the insensitive attitude of the state government towards the agitation against the bond policy. He said students of medical colleges are agitating for a month but the government remains indifferent and callous towards their demand.
“In PGI Rohtak, students are on hunger strike and protest but the government has chosen to remain indifferent to their protests and it seems the suffering of the students makes no difference to the government,” Leader of Opposition Hooda said in a statement.
“Now, resident doctors and other medical staff have also come in support of the students. Due to their strike, the patients are facing a lot of problems.”
The government is continuously engaged in trying to escalate this into a confrontation.
“Instead of accepting the legitimate demand of the students, the government is busy threatening them. Students are being threatened with expulsion from the hostel and lodging of a first information report (FIR) against them,” he said.
“No bond policy is applicable in 10 states. The 17 states that have implemented the bond policy have also guaranteed government jobs to their students. In all the states the bond amount and tenure is less than Haryana. Not only this, in almost all the states the bond is between the government and the students. Whereas in Haryana, a provision has been made to take loan from the bank,” Hooda said.
The former Chief Minister said poor and middle-class children will be deprived of medical education due to the imposition of bond and Rs 40 lakh fee in government educational institutions.
“In order to provide the benefits of medical education to the poor and middle-class families, the Congress government had established four medical colleges in the state. Institutions like AIIMS and the cancer institute also came to the state during the Congress tenure. While the BJP-JJP government did not build a single new medical educational institution in the state during their entire tenure. In such a situation, the present government has no moral right to collect any kind of recovery from the students pursuing medical studies in already established educational institutions,” he added.
Hooda said the government should understand the pain of these students, their parents and the patients who are facing problems due to the strike.
“This problem should be resolved as soon as possible. I would raise the issue in the coming assembly session,” he said.
–IANS
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