The Bolan Medical College Students Alliance and the students of physiotherapy continued their protest sit-in against various issues in Balochistan’s capital on Tuesday.
The protesting students complained that despite the fact that they had given a list of numerous issues of the college about which they had given the ultimatum of a week for resolution, but they were not resolved.
They said that their grievances were not that big that the college could not afford to fulfill them or delay them.
“All our rights are based on the fundamentals of education which include the construction of new hostel buildings owing to the increasing number of newcomers, inquiry on budget and welfare of students’ funds of last eighteen months, maintenance of the existing hostel, increment in monthly stipend to twelve thousand, functionality of academic board and so forth,” said the students while sitting in the protest for last three days.
“Even we were promised by the authorities that construction work would begin within a week, there has been nothing as such since then,” they stated.
In the protest against the unfulfilled promises to solve the grievances of the college, the students closed the college by staging a camp within the college premise for last two days. The students say neither the college principal, nor the health secretary neither any other relevant authority had come to make dialogues with the protesting students. They say that although the principal promised and allotted fifteen million rupees but nothing has been practical.
“The facilities of new hostels and hostel maintenance works must be done on urgent basis which have troubled the students the most,” they commented.
They added that merely Balochistan Medical Teachers Association (BTMA) had visited them and asked them to take them into their confidence before taking any step. “If our demands are not met within the week, we will intensify our protest,” the students told.
On the other hand, Balochistan Physiotherapy Association (BPA) had set-up a token hunger strike camp outside the Quetta Press Club for last eleven days asking the government to give them field opportunities. They said that the issue of physiotherapy was one important issue which had always received the least attention from the provincial governments. They said that people of the province had to travel to the other provinces because of unavailability of physiotherapists in the province.
“Although millions of rupees are allotted for the field, but we see nothing in practical for last ten years in particular,” they said.
The students further said that more than five hundred physiotherapists were ready to render their services to the masses of the province, but the concerned authorities, including the health minister and secretary, had been showing “no interest” towards their issue. The demands of the physiotherapists include the creation of an extra post of physiotherapy in every district of Balochistan, establishment of physiotherapy centers in all the DHQs of the province. They said that they would not end their protesting sit-in unless their concerns were addressed.
