The nominee of Prime Minister and Chancellor Narendra Modi in the executive council, Dulal Chandra Ghosh, on Tuesday led around 100 retired teachers and staff of Visva-Bharati, to protest in front of the varsity’s central office against the varsity administration’s decision to scrap free medical consultation at the university hospital in Santiniketan.
Ghosh, also the president of the Visva-Bharati Pensioners’ Association, has written to the Prime Minister’s Office, requesting him to intervene and make the varsity administration reconsider.
“Pensioners have been getting healthcare services at the hospital since the time of Rabindranath Tagore. Ever since vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty came here, he had been saying we will not be able to consult doctors at the hospital for free as the central government provides us Rs 1,000 a month as medical allowance. The varsity administration stopped the service since July 2020,” said Ghosh.