ABBOTTABAD: The nursing students of the District Headquarters Hospital, Abbottabad, on Monday took out a rally against the non-payment of stipend.

The rally began from outside the DHQ Hospital and ended in front of the deputy commissioner`s offices.

On strike for three weeks, the protesters claimed they had neither been paid Rs5,000 stipend for five months nor had they received Rs20,000 announced by the chief minister a year ago.

They said the nursingstudentsin other districts regularly got that stipend.

The protesters said therelevantauthoritieshad promised them early payments many times but the promises turned out to be false.

They claimed that unlike them, students of private health institutions were being trained and given facilities at the school.

The protesters said they had joined the nursing school and DHQ after qualifying the NTS test and had completed their clinical hours and courses but were denied stipend.

They demanded the chief minister, health minister and health secretary to step in and ensure early corrective steps.Correspondent