NEET PG would be delayed by a year for Gian Sagar Medical College students

Patiala: Students of Gian Sagar Medical College (GSMC),face two other woes besides having to shift to other colleges in the face of closure. That of loosing an year before being considered eligible to sit for the NEET (PG) entrance, as their 1 year internship is being extended by another three months; and the loss of stipend during their extended internship period.

A one year wait for their MBBS and BDS degrees, besides the delay in being considered eligible to sit for the NEET entrance, has become a painful reality, for those moving to other institutions. The financial constraint on stipend payments makes them tight on finances.

The Baba Farid University of Health Sciences decision to extend the internship of the 2012 batch, by 3 months has come in the face of 365 days of internship not having been completed on closure of GSMC.

While the MBBS student shift is over, the BDS students are still undergoing the college allocations on the basis of merit. Students speaking of ineligibility for the forthcoming NEET Exam said they were being considered ineligible, as they will not have completed their internship till June 30,2017.

"Our fault is that we took admission in Gian Sagar Institute unaware of the fact that it would shut down. The government should compensate us and get us internship certificates so that we may appear for several exams besides NEET, including masters in dental surgery (MDS) exam of PGIMER scheduled for June, an international exam in September and an exam of National Board of Dental Examination (NBDE) scheduled for December," said a student.
Gian Sagar was paying these students an honorarium of Rs. 6000, while they were there.

"According to norms, students pursuing MBBS and BDS courses are supposed to get a stipend of Rs 9,000 per month during internship. We will not get the stipend now. The most important thing is we are going to suffer a lot due to the three-month extension of internship as we will not be able to appear for exams like NEET (PG). With this, another year is spoiled as we will get degrees next year," a BDS student told TOI.