Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Medical Education (DME) has directed the deans of some government medical colleges in the state to collect a bond amount of Rs 50 lakh from specialist doctors who have skipped government postings.

Director of the DME, Narayana Prasad has written letters to the deans of government medical colleges citing the cases of 112 doctors who had completed the higher speciality courses in 2021 and chose to not take up government service during the recent online transfer counselling.

According to the Tamil Nadu government norms, doctors who have completed speciality courses from government medical colleges and those who are not in government service will have to pay a bond amount that was agreed upon during their admission.

Prasad further wrote in his letter that the doctors were unwilling to work in the Tamil Nadu government service and have failed to take up postings available in their speciality department in government medical colleges.

He also urged to issue a show-cause notice as a first step.

The DME Director called upon the deans to initiate action against the non-service postgraduates in higher speciality streams after the show cause notice.

The bond amount, according to the letter has to be recovered through the Revenue recovery act with immediate effect.

The DME has directed the deans to send an action taken report within August 31 on this issue.

All the super-speciality seats in Tamil Nadu is filled by the Director-General of Health Services under the All India Quota and a bond is mandatory for non-service doctors.

The Madras High Court on October 6, 2020, ordered that postgraduate medical students admitted under the All India Quota have to compulsorily serve the state government for a period of two years.

While speaking to IANS, Prasad said: “The state has reduced the bond amount from of Rs 2 crore which was till last year to Rs 50 lakh now. The doctors opted out of serving the state government even after there were vacancies during the counselling. The government will take strict action against the erring doctors and have already written to the deans of government medical colleges to produce an action taken report before August 31.”

He also expressed unhappiness that the doctors did not serve the government even during the Covid period.