Shillong, July 9: The state government has decided to review the bond policy to address the shortage of doctors in the state.

This was informed by Minister incharge Health and Family Welfare Ampareen Lyngdoh on Tuesday after meeting a delegation of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), who have sought her intervention to ensure transparency in the allotment of medical seats under the State quota.

“Why is it that from year to year, the number of medical seats has been increased for students of Meghalaya and why is it that we still have this huge shortage? So we are going to review the bond (policy). We are going to review all these important concerns to ensure that doctors, who availed this from the state of Meghalaya returned to the state of Meghalaya,” Lyngdoh told reporters.

She said that the department is actively engaging with the law department for reviewing and revisiting the bond policy to ensure to a large extent, the doctors and students come back to serve the people of Meghalaya.

According to her, there has been a proportionate increase in the medical seats allocated to Meghalaya, which got 94 seats in 2023. “We hope that these numbers of seats will continue to proportionately increase (in coming years),” she said.

The minister however said, “We hope that as and when the court gives the nod to the Government of India to start NEET counselling, we hope that by then we will be in a better place (to say the number of seats alloted to Meghalaya) and will be able to do necessary interventions to ensure that all of these matters are attended to.”

Asked, Lyngdoh said, “The personnel and law are the authorities for advice and guidance to any line department with respect to the allotment of seats as per the reservation policy. We are now in a better position to ensure that while selecting and allotting seats for medical colleges as per the reservation policy, we do not violate the policy or disadvantage any of the beneficiaries who should benefit from it. We are strictly following this.”

Describing a situation, she wondered what should be done if there is an applicant who bears a tribal surname but is not a permanent resident of the state of Meghalaya and does not even have a scheduled tribe certificate; What should the state do with such applications?

“These are very peculiar situation. We should not take decision on our own and we should get the guidance and the correct advisory from department of personnel and law so that we may implement this facility for students, applying for medical seats and they should ensure they conform with the law and policy of the state of Meghalaya,” she said.

Also Read: Meghalaya Govt ready to operationalise two medical colleges, await NMC nod

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