Team Herald
PANJIM: Congress has taken exception to the demand for a bank guarantee of Rs five lakh from the students seeking admission to MBBS course in Goa Medical College (GMC) and Goa Dental College (GDC), terming it as discriminatory in nature and against common man.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar has alleged that the demand for a bank guarantee at the time of admission to the undergraduate degree course in medicine is discriminatory in nature and against the common man.
Referring to the circular issued by the Department of Public Health, the GPCC president said the demand for Rs 5 lakh bank guarantee at the time of seeking admission was to alienate and deprive the children from common and humble backgrounds from seeking medical education.
“The prospectus states that for seeking admission to the MBBS course the student will have to sign a bond, which is fine. But at the same time, the aspiring student will have to also furnish a bond of Rs 5 lakh. A common man’s child cannot afford to pay that money. This is discriminatory in nature against those from humble background”, he stated.
Girish questioned the motive of the government in issuing a circular which specifically designed slabs of the amount of money needed to be submitted as bank guarantee, if a student wishes to seek higher education after completing the undergraduate MBBS course at GMC or GDC.
He said, “The demand for a bond was fine but you have gone ahead and demanded bank guarantee of huge sums with specific slabs. We have been saying that this government is ‘suit boot sarkar’ and the government is proving it right. They are out to deprive the children of humble backgrounds and Bahujan Samaj the right to medical education.”
Threatening to take to the streets if the circular is not withdrawn, he said, “We demand that the government withdraws the circular demanding the bank guarantee and also the demand from the prospectus. If the government does not withdraw the circular then we will not hesitate from taking to the streets in the interest of the students. Our student wing NSUI and we as a party will not allow such a discriminatory thing to happen.”
