When your merit, hard work, poverty and struggle to get loan to achieve hard-earned education fails to yield results... then emerges the... "M bole to Munnabhai"... who uses all unfair means, uses his henchmen to threat, cheat and hoodwink the system to "achieve" what they want. The reality is indeed a sad affair.
After securing high ranks in Neet, these aspiring doctors and their families took loans to get admission to Glocal Medical College in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh in 2016.
But after 2.5 years, they find themselves in tatters and "literally" bleeding on an OT bed of "anarchy". After four years of pursuing their MBBS course, their admission stands cancelled as their college apparently did not follow the rules of the Medical Council of India. To make matters worse, their financial burden is mounting as they are unable to pay the instalments for educational loans.
A Bhopal-based aspiring doctor and 49 others like him are having a hard time to seek justice while grappling with financial stress and personal loss due to Covid-19 pandemic.
What has disheartened them further is that 23 local students belonging to Uttar Pradesh have been transferred to other colleges. But these 49 students find themselves in a lurch. No one, espcecially no neta has also taken interest in their future. But when it comes to talking big on youth and the future of Bharat, these politicians can churn out reams of monologues.
Prabhat Pandey who hails from Bhopal said, "My father wanted me to become a doctor but I have lost him to corona. He was employed with Indian Railways and was on relentless duty during the pandemic era. My family and I were already battling the admission botch up and now the death of my father has devastated us allround. We are suffering for no fault of ours and our mental condition is getting worse by the day. My career is on hold and I am finding it hard to earn for my family. I am a single child and now my mother and I are under constant mental stress to repay the Rs 30 lakh loan.”
“We belong to a middle-income-group family but my parents never hesitated and did everything possible to get me enrolled into a medical college. With great difficulty, my parents had arranged for the money by taking a loan and selling off their land,” he said.
Pursuing MBBS was always a dream. It was definitely a very difficult path to tread into another state and to pursue your dreams," he added.
"I am the first one in my family to have dared to pursue MBBS that too at an institute in another state. Corona has eaten into our financial booty and we are now losing hope. That sinking feeling has set in. All the dreams and aspiration of becoming a doctor seems to be a distant dream now.
"We are have taken loan by leasing out our land and now we have no surety about our living," said a student from Kerala.
“I belong to a lower middle class family, my parents mortgaged their property for my education and paid 30 lakh as college fee, I am the only ray of hope for my family. Now they are in extreme mental pressure," said Ashik Bahuleyan
"All of us are almost above 23 years and are unable to apply for most degree programms. Appearing for NEET again and then following all the procedure will be next to impossible. To step up the crisis, corona dealt the final blow. All we request is the right to education instead of being onlookers while those with less marks and merit have been transferred to other colleges. Why this discrimination? asked another student Zamil.
MORCHA ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The affected students have written to Health ministry, MCI, DGME, CMO, PMO but thheir pleas have failed to evoke response. They are running campaigns online through twitter, Facebook with hashtags-#Shiftglocalmedicalcollege #media_world#IN uttar pradesh#save50 medicos#iyogi office. They are also trying their best to approach different media platforms.
Plea for justice
‘’My clients must get justice. They should be rehabilitated as there are 400 vacancies in other colleges,‘’ said Alakh Alok Srivastava, the students' lawyer.
