WhatsApp messages all hours of night and day come with the job at medical colleges. In West Bengal, there is a difference. Many such chats across medical colleges in the state involve monetary transactions over hospital shifts and emergency room duties, which are bought and sold for fixed rates per hour.

Officials said that what started as informal peer adjustments among medical interns has turned into a cash-for-duty network that operates across medical colleges in Kolkata and other parts of the state, allowing interns to trade mandatory rotatory shifts for amounts ranging between Rs 200 and Rs 600 per hour.

One such group, named ‘Internship Replacement’, contains more than 255 members who regularly broadcast shift availability and the money expected in return.

The state Health Department has rolled out a biometric attendance system now to check the practice.…