Overview
- A government resolution issued July 23 ended the compulsory one-year social responsibility service for MBBS graduates across government, municipal, aided and eligible private colleges.
- Graduates who were eligible but not allotted posts, those allotted but not joined, and those who could not complete the bond are exempted while students who had already joined must finish their remaining tenure.
- The Directorate of Medical Education and Research online allotment portal will be closed and no fresh bond postings will be made under the new rules.
- Doctors’ groups welcomed the move as a remedy for delays to postgraduate admissions, while public-health activists warned the change leaves about 1,500 government medical college posts and roughly 1,600 primary health centre vacancies unresolved.
- The bond requirement will remain for postgraduate and superspeciality courses, and the policy shift places new pressure on the state to improve recruitment, fill vacant posts and upgrade rural health infrastructure.