Students of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) Dental college on Tuesday demanded the state government and JNIMS authority to increase the Junior Resident (JR) intake of the Dental department, JNIMS.
Speaking to media at JNIMS Dental college, Imphal, a student of the college (identity withheld) said that JNIMS dental students had originally planned to protest for the demand but the JNIMS director and authority had intervened from doing so.
She highlighted that JNIMS dental department had always outsourced 13 JR for the department as the department did not have any passed-out dental students in previous years.
“The department now has a passed-out batch but the new order to take only four JR has created a shockwave among the students; why was the seat decreased from the previous 13 to four?” she questioned.
She further informed that a recent cabinet decision was announced to keep the JR intake capacity at 13 but the JNIMS authority’s order to appoint only directly infringes on the cabinet order. The JR appointment for 2021 also remains unannounced to date and no new JR appointment has been made for nearly two years, she noted.
“The paid appointment lasts for only six months, now that JNIMS has a batch of passed out dental students the seat has been decreased,” she said.
As such, she demanded JNIMS authority to reinstate the cabinet order and even increase the student intake capacity. She cautioned that dental students would continue to agitate until their demands are met at the earliest.
Meanwhile, JNIMS director L Deben alleged that the outcry from JNIMS dental students was instigated by 32 passed out students under the guidance of a few senior doctors of the institute.
The director continued that some senior doctors who ran private practices outside JNIMS, which is against JNIMS rules and regulations, had fuelled the students to benefit their own agendas.
“Along with the interns, if JR intake is increased, few senior doctors will be relieved of their hectic schedule which in turn will give them more time to indulge in their own private practices,” he said.
Deben further assured JNIMS authority will investigate and take action against senior doctors indulging in private practices outside their JNIMS engagement.
He also maintained that JNIMS dental department had always outsourced 13 JR, in a recurring manner, as the institute did not have any passed out dental students and interns.
“The first batch of dental students completed their internships on March 6, 2023 and even more are interning at the department as such the seat intake for JR was reduced to four,” he said.
Deben mentioned that there was no need to outsource JRs anymore as the institute had started to house its own interns and had enough dental staff.
“Around 45 professors are posted currently in the dental department and with around 50 interns in the regular dental batch, the department has nearly 100 doctors to tend to OPD dental patients which is around 50 on a daily basis,” he said.
On the matter of not announcing 2021 JR results, Deben stated that the result had been scrapped as the daily OPD dental patients during that period was very low. There was no need to take in more JRs during that time, he added.
“And also, there are no mandatory guidelines from the DCI or MCI to take regular JRs; that decision is left to the institute,” he said.
As such he appealed to students not to take part in such activities and maintained that JNIMS would take JRs according to the respective departments' requirements.
