550 teachers of Jaipur's SMS Medical College quit

Over 500 teachers at Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Medical College, who have been protesting the Rajasthan government's order to make medical officers equivalent to medical teachers, resigned from their posts on Wednesday.

The teachers, associated with Rajasthan Medical College Teachers Association (RMCTA), have alleged that the government's March 7 order will introduce a lateral entry into the teaching line and accused it of misleading people by using the word 'equivalent'.

RMCTA secretary Dr Dhananjai Agarwal said medical officers are not qualified to teach students in medical colleges as they perform non-teaching duties.

He said the government wants teachers from SMS Medical College and other colleges to be deployed as faculty members in the 8 upcoming institutes and replace them with medical officers as faculty members.

The Vasundhara Raje government is coming up with colleges in Alwar, Barmer, Bharatpur, Churu,



Dungarpur, Bhilwara, Pali and Sikar and the academic session is expected to start from 2017-18.

Dr Agarwal said if these medical officers are deployed in the new colleges and made equivalent to medical teachers, then Medical Council of India will cancel the affiliation.

"If eligibility and experience of these medical officers are made 'equivalent' to medical teachers and seen from the perspective of MCI guidelines, then things would become very clear whether this decision is right or not," he said.

"We have demanded that the government withdraw this order and if it does not then it must accept our resignations from Thursday."

Patients were at the receiving end as teachers boycotted their work at the government-run SMS College, putting additional pressure on resident doctors.

Teachers of other government medical colleges in the state have been informed about the matter and their response is yet to come.