This will impose an additional burden of Rs 4 crore on the State government's exchequer.

A government resolution raising the stipend is expected in the next few days, Sachivalaya sources told Express Newsline today.

The long-pending demand of over 1,400 postgraduate medical students for an increase in the stipend was conceded after an hour's deliberations between Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister P K Laheri and the medicos' representatives from the four colleges this evening.

However, after the meeting, a section of the medicos raised full-throated slogans in the Sachivalaya, insisting they be given stipends at par with that received by their counterparts in other States of the country.

``The stipend in other States is much more than what we are getting here'', a representative of the agitating medical students said.

When contacted, Laheri said the Government had never been averse to increasing the post-graduate students' stipends by 56 per cent. But, the demand for stipend at par with that for counterparts in other States could not be conceded right now without ascertaining the facts and figures which ``we will certainly seek from the States concerned very shortly'', the principal secretary said.

R M Patel, Commissioner of Health and Medical Services, said the increase was based on the pay and perks the tutors in the medical colleges were getting. After the implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations, a tutor's pay and allowances have been raised from Rs 8,500 to Rs 13,380, registering a hike of a little over 56 per cent.

Patel admitted that the postgraduate medical students were getting less stipend in the State as compared to those being given out in other States.

He, however, contended: ``The resident doctors should not hanker after the increase, for they are not government employees. "If the State Government is providing the stipend, it is on compensatory grounds so that they can increase their clinical skills''.

At present, the first and second year resident doctors are getting a stipend of Rs 3,050 and Rs 3,070, while the third year students are getting Rs 4,000.