Strike by SMIS students enters seventh day

Gangtok,Jan 17 (UNI) The indefinite strike launched by the students of the Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Science (SMIMS) demanding Medical Council of India (MCI) recognition to their course reached its seventh day today with no immediate solution in sight.

Meanwhile, the state government had notified the Sikkim Medical Registration Bill 2005. The bill got the Presidential nod in November last.

The bill provides for setting up of a state Medical Council which will enable the students who will pass out from the institute to register their names with the council and practice in the state.

As the notification of the SMC will have no retrospective effect and the internship will be counted from the day a student will register himself with the council, the students are likely to lose a year as they have started their internship from March 2006.

But the students said this would not solve their problem as more than half of the 99 students who will pass out from the institute are from outside the state.

Sources here said a meeting is scheduled to be held with the Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare on January 22 in Delhi to discuss the MCI recognition issue.

Sikkim Health and Family Affairs Principal Secretary , SMIMS Vice-Chancellor K Jaykumar and official of the MCI among others are scheduled to attend the meeting.

Dr Jaykumar said the institute had met all MCI requirements needed for the recognition and submitted all documents. He hoped that the institute would get recogntion.

Meanwhile, the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee had extended its support to the striking students and blamed the government for the delay in getting the recognition.

UNI