Updated on Saturday, July 04, 2009, 19:23 IST

Chennai, July 04: Tamil Nadu House Surgeons and Post Graduate Students Association on Saturday rejected the government's offer of increase in stipend for medicos, saying the hike is not up to their expectation and they would continue their strike which entered the third day.

Describing the hike as 'meagre', the association, spearheading the agitation, said in a release that it was "unacceptable".

"Our demand for a stipend of Rs 10,000 for house surgeons, Rs 25,000 for post graduate students and Rs 28,000 for students in specialities is less than the stipend given by other state governments," the association said.

Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu government announced a hike in stipend for MBBS and non-service post graduate students costing the exchequer Rs 9.60 crore annually.

The stipend of second year PG (specialisation) students was increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 16,000 and that for first year students was increased to Rs 15,000 from Rs 9,500 presently.

Fifth year students of Neurology would get Rs 16,000 against the earlier Rs 10,000, the government had announced after the revision.

Bureau Report