Dec. 23: Dispur today decided to regularise the payment of monthly stipends to junior doctors of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) from January.

The director of medical education, Umesh Sarmah, told a delegation of the Junior Doctors Association that arrears for October and November would be paid along with the stipend for December.

Sarmah said the stipend for the three months would be paid in January.

The president of the association, Vinay Shaw, and the general secretary, Syed Tanvir Alam, welcomed the government?s decision to pay the stipend, at the rate of Rs 6,950 per month for 350 junior doctors of the institution.

They said Dispur paid heed to the junior doctors? demand for timely payment of stipends following a series of agitation.

The junior doctors? delegation also informed Sarmah the various problems faced by the institution.

Though the health department cleared at least two months ago the official formalities pertaining to stipend, the process was delayed by the department of finance and the planning and development department, sources said.

?The process was irregular because funds allocated to three medical colleges in the state were diverted to other heads,? a source said.

Apart from the GMCH, there are two other government-run medical institutions in the state ? the Assam Medical College and Hospital in Dibrugarh and the Silchar Medical College and Hospital in Cachar district.

The government will have to fork out more than Rs 5 lakh every month to pay stipend to the junior doctors.

The GMCH Teachers? Association had also demanded regular payment of stipend to junior doctors of public hospitals across the state.

Sources said the frustrated outstation junior doctors had questioned the government?s ?right to use our service without paying us our dues?.