SURAT/RAJKOT: While the problem of delay in getting new connections or taking additional lines in existing MSME units from the Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Limited (DGVCL) has been acutely felt in various Surat circles, sources in PGVCL in Rajkot too said that material shortage has led to applications piling up for a long time now. In Surat, applications have been gathering dust since December 2021 while DGVCL has stopped accepting fresh applications. In the absence of power, the industrial unit owners who have invested heavily in machinery and building infrastructure are incurring huge losses. President of Anjani Industrial Society, Vijay Mangukiya said, “As many as 100 unit owners around Sayan have been waiting for power connection for the past six months. Due to unknown reasons they have not been provided with power supply.” Raju Jadvani, a unit owner in Delad village who had invested around Rs 1.5 crore on weaving machinery is in tenterhooks. “I have put the order of additional weaving machinery on hold as I am not getting additional power lines,” he rued. A facilitator who works for industrial society developers, Prashant Desai told TOI that his 100 clients were unable to start their units waiting for electricity connections. Situation in Sachin GIDC, one of south Gujarat’s largest industrial areas, is not much different either. “The industrial associations deposited Rs 80 crore with DGVCL to develop infrastructure for additional power. However, we have only been waiting since February. Machinery worth Rs 500 crore is lying unused in Sachin, while the DGVCL claims that they do not have equipment like transformers, conductors and cables,” said Mahendra Ramoliya, director, Sachin Industrial Association. Chief engineer of DGVCL, H R Shah said that the discom has been facing issues of getting machinery required for electricity distribution like transformers. “It is because of the farmers’ agitation, pandemic and other global issues that we have been facing the shortage,” he added. In Rajkot, 35 HT connections and several new LT connections applications are pending with the PGVCL which have been blamed for material shortage. According to sources in the discom, the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up material prices and vendors refused to supply at the old rates which disrupted the entire supply chain. Again, some materials that were being imported by the vendors got disrupted too due to the international political conditions. V J Baranwal, managing director of PGVCL said, “Generally, we keep a stock of 18 months. But owing to the Tauktae cyclone last year, we had to use all the material in repairing damaged infrastructure. We have already finalized new tenders and the problem will be solved in the next two to three weeks.” The four public Discoms adopt CPP (central procurement policy) under which each company issues tenders for various materials rotation wise for the needs of all four companies. The purpose is to get cheap material in bulk purchase. On the other hand, barring a few industrial units situated within established GIDC industrial estates like Vatva, Odhav and Sanand in Ahmedabad district, none others have not faced the issue. Manoj Dobaria, who runs an infrastructure development firm said, “Outside Kathwada GIDC, several factories located around 5km away along the Indore Highway have applications pending before the Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Limited (UGVCL). The power distribution company cites unavailability of adequate equipment as a reason for not processing applications for setting up new factories or starting operations.”
Surat/Rajkot: While the problem of delay in getting new connections or taking additional lines in existing MSME units from the Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Limited (DGVCL) has been acutely felt in various Surat circles, sources in PGVCL in Rajkot too said that material shortage has led to applications piling up for a long time now. In Surat, applications have been gathering dust since December 2021 while DGVCL has stopped accepting fresh applications. In the absence of power, the industrial unit owners who have invested heavily in machinery and building infrastructure are incurring huge losses. President of Anjani Industrial Society, Vijay Mangukiya said, “As many as 100 unit owners around Sayan have been waiting for power connection for the past six months. Due to unknown reasons they have not been provided with power supply.”Raju Jadvani, a unit owner in Delad village who had invested around Rs 1.5 crore on weaving machinery is in tenterhooks. “I have put the order of additional weaving machinery on hold as I am not getting additional power lines,” he rued. A facilitator who works for industrial society developers, Prashant Desai told TOI that his 100 clients were unable to start their units waiting for electricity connections. Situation in Sachin GIDC, one of south Gujarat’s largest industrial areas, is not much different either. “The industrial associations deposited Rs 80 crore with DGVCL to develop infrastructure for additional power. However, we have only been waiting since February. Machinery worth Rs 500 crore is lying unused in Sachin, while the DGVCL claims that they do not have equipment like transformers, conductors and cables,” said Mahendra Ramoliya, director, Sachin Industrial Association. Chief engineer of DGVCL, H R Shah said that the discom has been facing issues of getting machinery required for electricity distribution like transformers. “It is because of the farmers’ agitation, pandemic and other global issues that we have been facing the shortage,” he added.In Rajkot, 35 HT connections and several new LT connections applications are pending with the PGVCL which have been blamed for material shortage. According to sources in the discom, the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up material prices and vendors refused to supply at the old rates which disrupted the entire supply chain. Again, some materials that were being imported by the vendors got disrupted too due to the international political conditions. V J Baranwal, managing director of PGVCL said, “Generally, we keep a stock of 18 months. But owing to the Tauktae cyclone last year, we had to use all the material in repairing damaged infrastructure. We have already finalized new tenders and the problem will be solved in the next two to three weeks.” The four public Discoms adopt CPP (central procurement policy) under which each company issues tenders for various materials rotation wise for the needs of all four companies. The purpose is to get cheap material in bulk purchase.On the other hand, barring a few industrial units situated within established GIDC industrial estates like Vatva, Odhav and Sanand in Ahmedabad district, none others have not faced the issue.Manoj Dobaria, who runs an infrastructure development firm said, “Outside Kathwada GIDC, several factories located around 5km away along the Indore Highway have applications pending before the Uttar Gujarat Vij Company Limited (UGVCL). The power distribution company cites unavailability of adequate equipment as a reason for not processing applications for setting up new factories or starting operations.”
AHMEDABAD: The strike by bonded postgraduate medical students of government-run medical colleges in the state entered the third day on Friday. The students who have completed their MD and MS courses are demanding a waiver of their one-year bond service period. On Thursday, the health department had issued an ultimatum to striking students, asking them to end the strike and resume duty or be prepared to face legal action. However, the agitating students ignored this ultimatum and continued to stay away from OPDs and other duties on Friday. The health department makes PG students from government-run medical colleges sign bonds amounting to Rs 40 lakh each. The students are supposed to work at government-run health centres in rural areas for one year or forfeit Rs 40 lakh to relieve themselves of the bond condition. Similarly, the undergraduate students are required to sign Rs 20 lakh bonds. Around 1,000 PG medical students from Ahmedabad are part of the strike that involves students from government medical colleges in Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar. TNN
Members of the Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA) of BJ Medical College (BJMC), affiliated with Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, Wednesday went on strike from routine OPD and operation theatre duties over long-pending demands of equating the bond period with the senior residency duration owing to their service in Covid-19 wards for nearly 17 months.A JDA office-bearer told this paper, “Of the 36 months of course-work as a post-graduate course candidate, we served nearly 16-17 months in Covid wards, which also affected our academics as we were not dealing with regular OPDs. The state government considered equating the senior residency period with the mandatory bond period for those admitted in 2017 and 2018 but has not considered the same for those admitted in 2019, despite the Covid work that was done by the 2019 batch as well.”Meanwhile, state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel told media persons on the sidelines of an event in Patan: “If the strike continues, the state has its recourse and will take disciplinary action if required. It is my request that they rejoin duty.”BJMC JDA has been raising the issue since last year, and had in February this year made written representations to the chief minister’s office as well as to the health minister. In March, the health minister wrote to the additional chief secretary of the health department advising them to “take appropriate actions” with respect to the request put forth by JDA. BJMC post-graduate course director and medical superintendent of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, on May 28 and June 6 respectively, wrote to the additional chief secretary endorsing and recommending for counting bond service equal to the residency period.Residency is a year-long specialised training after three years of the post-graduate programme and becomes mandatory if one wants to apply for teaching positions. In Gujarat, for those admitted through state quota seats, students are also mandated to serve a year-long medical bond period as rural tenure, which is separate from the residency period.BJMC JDA plans to boycott Covid and emergency services on June 16 as well “if there is no positive response from the government”. A similar strike was held last year, following which, the state government agreed to consider one year of residency equivalent to one year of bond service.
Gujarat's health minister said doctors cannot shy away from serving people.(File)Ahmedabad: Nearly 4,000 resident doctors from five government-run medical colleges in Gujarat went on an indefinite strike from Wednesday to put pressure on the state government to consider 12 months of their senior residency as mandatory bond service.While hospital authorities have made alternate arrangements to cope up with the impact of the strike, Gujarat Health Minister Rushikesh Patel said the resident doctors cannot shy away from serving people in rural areas, as per their bond condition.Out of the state's six government medical colleges -- Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar -- resident doctors in Surat refrained from joining the strike and they gave one more day to the government to resolve the issue.As of now, the resident doctors have withdrawn from attending to all routine OPD (Out Patient Department) services for an indefinite period. Though they are available for emergency and COVID-19 services, their associations have threatened to launch a full-fledged strike in the coming days if the issue remains unresolved.According to rules regarding the service bond, students of government medical colleges have to serve in rural areas for at least one year after completing their post graduate (PG) medical course.If any student wants to break the bond signed at the time of taking admission, he has to pay Rs 40 lakh. This rule is applicable to students of the six government medical colleges in the state.Since some time, students of the 2019 batch, who have completed their course and are about to start their senior residency of 12 months in hospitals attached with their respective colleges, have been demanding that the government should consider this residency period as the bond period."Our demand is legitimate because students of this batch had served COVID-19 patients for 17 months, out of the total 36 months of the course. If the previous batches are exempted from bond service on the same ground, then why can't the government consider the batch of 2019 for the same relief?" asked Dr Rahul Gameti, president of the Junior Doctors' Association in Ahmedabad.However, Health Minister Rushikesh Patel has warned of disciplinary action against the agitating doctors."We will take disciplinary action if required. I urge these doctors to end the strike and join duties at the earliest. I don't agree with their demands. The government spends a considerable amount to make them specialist doctors. Thus, you have to serve in villages after completing your PG," Patel told reporters.According to officials at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, which is affiliated to the government-run Byramjee Jeejeebhoy(B J) Medical College, there is no major impact of the strike as of now.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.com"To cope up with the situation, we have cancelled the vacations of our faculty members and transferred non-clinical staff to clinical branches. As of now, there is no major impact on the services because the resident doctors have withdrawn themselves only from routine duties," the civil hospital's superintendent, Dr Rakesh Joshi, said.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
