FMGs stage protest over delay in granting Permanent Registrations

Chaos at Andhra Pradesh Medical Council as FMGs protest for Permanent Registrations and internship duration issues.

Chaos ensued for hours outside the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council (APMC) office on January 6, Monday, as Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) staged a protest in Vijayawada once again demanding Permanent Registrations to those who completed their one-year internship and appointment of a chairman, even as a posse of police officers tried to calm the situation.

In the narrow corridor outside the Registrar’s office at the APMC, located on the premises of the Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences, around 100 FMGs gathered, raising slogans and refusing to leave until Dr. Ramesh, who locked himself inside, came out. After almost three hours, after the police officers convinced them, the FMGs left the place. However, they continued the protest on the premises till evening.  

Some of the FMGs, belonging to the batches affected by the pandemic, are those who have been waiting for PRs since June, while some others are those who have received their internship allotment letters recently. They joined the protest to express their discontent at the allotment of three years of internships.

The National Medical Commission, in a June 19 notification, issued for foreign medical students who came to India during the pandemic, had said those who have compensatory certificates from their parent universities and took their final exam offline should be allotted one-year internship.

The FMGs said despite having these certificates, they were being told to undergo two years of internship. Besides, the graduates said while all other States were following the above rule, it was only A.P. which was insisting on two or three years of internship. 

“The Registrar is deciding the internship duration as per his whims and fancies. Who will send their children to foreign countries for medical studies if there are so many delays?” asked a parent, Madhu Sudhan, who came from Kurnool along with his daughter.

The graduates felt that the situation would not have arisen had the council been formed by now. ‘‘It has been eight months since the new government has come and the APMC is yet to be formed. Without a council, a 25-member body, it has become a one-man show,’‘ they said.