Srinagar: The All India Medical Students’ Association (AIMSA), along with MBBS and BDS interns across Jammu and Kashmir, has resumed its strike and announced candle marches tonight at all Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) and SKIMS Bemina to protest the continued delay in implementing the long-pending stipend hike.
The decision comes amid allegations that the government has failed to fulfil its written assurance issued on September 8, when interns were asked to wait for 30 days for the matter to be resolved. On October 12, an AIMSA delegation held another meeting with the authorities, during which OSD Peerzada Zahoor Ahmad reportedly sought an additional week to address the issue. However, a subsequent meeting with the Director General of Finance at the Secretariat on October 19 failed to yield a resolution.
Dr Tasaduk, Joint Secretary of AIMSA, alleged that members of the delegation were subjected to humiliating remarks during their interaction with the OSD. According to him, the officer reportedly suggested that the government was doing interns a favour by providing them with free medical education.
“Instead of a concrete resolution, we were met with humiliating remarks. The OSD reportedly told us that the government was doing us a favour by providing free medical education. Since when has public expenditure become anyone’s personal charity? The money belongs to the taxpayers of J&K, not to ministers or bureaucrats. We earn our degrees through merit, sacrifice and relentless hard work,” he said.
Dr Mohammad Momin Khan, President of AIMSA, said the association respected government officials and institutions but would not accept rude or humiliating treatment of medical interns.
In a post on X on Monday, the president announced that intern doctors across all Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) in Jammu and Kashmir would resume their protest the following day over the delay in implementing the stipend hike. He accused the government of failing to honour its written assurance, describing the development as a “shameful betrayal of trust.”
