Uttarakhand BJP govt. in a fix on in its’ decision to hand over Haridwar Medical College to private players as students are on warpath  

Uttarakhand BJP govt. in a fix on in its’ decision to hand over Haridwar Medical College to private players as students are on warpath

S.M.A.KAZMI

Dehradun , Jan 10

The decision of the Uttarakhand state BJP government to transfer the state owned newly started Haridwar Medical College into private hands has backfired as the medical students of the college are on warpath holding demonstrations against the move for the third day today. The decision of the state government headed by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to hand over the medical college to Sharda Educational Society, Noida, which runs the Sharda University, to operate it under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, has come at a time when civic elections in the state are underway and gave an handle to the opposition to hit out at the BJP state government.

The medical students are on strike for the past three days and announced that they would continue their agitation until state government reverse its’ decision to hand it over in the private hands. Seeking retention of the current government status of their medical college, the students’ biggest fear is college fee structure. They apprehend that fee would be raised exorbitantly as in other private medical college as compared to state owned medical colleges.

The state government officials were quick to give assurances to the agitating students but to no avail. The Haridwar Medical college was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2021 but admissions to the first session started in the current academic session. The decision to hand over to the college in private hands came as bolt from the blue for the young students who had got admission through competitive examination.

Rangeel Singh Raina ,College principal has stated that a final decision regarding privatization has yet to be taken by the Uttarakhand cabinet while Director of Medical Education Ashutosh Sayana reportedly assured that there would be no fee hike and the students will get all the facilities as available in government medical colleges. The students would get degrees with Government medical college written on it. He said that a decision regarding PPP mode has been taken to provide better facilities to the students as well as to the patients. He said that patients would get all the same facilities as they get in any other government medical college including availing facilities as per Ayushman cards.

The students on the other hand stated that they felt cheated since they were not informed during admission counselling regarding the proposed privatization as they were the principal stakeholders.  They challenged the legality of the decision and wanted to know that under what Act this decision has been taken.  Despite getting assurances about tution fee, students apprehend that in the coming days they would be charged heavily under hidden charges (supplementary exams, practical charges and other fee) as in other private medical college.

The main opposition Congress party has opposed the state government move and termed it as a complete failure of the BJP state government in health sector, Suryakant Dhasmana, Senior Vice-president of Uttarakhand Congress addressing media persons in Dehradun charged that it was an open loot of the public exchequer. He questioned that why Haridwar Medical College built with hundreds of crores of public money on 800 acres spacious is being gifted to a private institute on a platter. He further alleged that the argument of statement government of not finding qualified faculty for Haridwar Medical College is not understandable and completely false. He asked the BJP leadership to come clean on the PPP mode deal since the earlier experiments in giving government hospitals in the state on PPP mode had completely failed and abandoned by the state government itself.

The Uttarakhand unit of the All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) has issued the following statement on the issue: “In the adverse circumstances of Uttarakhand, where health facilities are already in a poor state, the government has cheated students in the name of a government medical college. The government-established medical college in Haridwar, set up on December 4, 2021, is now being handed over to the Sharda Educational Society, which runs Sharda University, under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model, with the intention of privatizing it, despite the government’s promise of a public medical college. This act is not only condemnable but also criminal. The students of Medical College Haridwar are on an indefinite strike, which we at AIDSO support. We demand that the state government immediately withdraw this order and appeal to the general public, especially the student community, to support and strengthen this justified movement in every possible way.”