Govt to make rural service a must for pvt medical college graduates

After government medical colleges, now medical graduates from private colleges will also have to serve in health care centres and hospitals located in rural areas of the state.

Medical education minister Girish Mahajan stated that they are also setting up a portal to ensure that medical and dental graduates are serve in rural areas.

Mahajan further said that even students graduated from private medical colleges have to follow the same rule.

“This is a compulsion for government and civic–run colleges, so why not private colleges? I am going to make rural service compulsory for the state’s private colleges. This will solve the problem of doctors in rural areas and medicos will gain experience as well,” he added.

A senior official said that there are total 23 private medical colleges in the state, including dental colleges and they have 3,970 seats. “The rule states that students who do not serve in rural areas must pay a fine of Rs 15 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, and Rs 2.5 crore. But many students end up never stepping into a rural health care centres, or paying the fine,” added officials. He further

stated that with the help of Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited, a public limited company, is developing a portal who will have all the details regarding bond services.

“The portal will have details of vacant positions in rural healthcare facilities. Graduates will have to apply online for the bond service, after which vacant positions will be allotted to students,” added a senior official.

Every year around 3000 students are graduated from govt-run medical colleges. But not more than 500 doctors ready to join rural services and others are ready to pay fine instead of serving health care centres in rural and tribal areas