The United Doctors Front Association (UDFA), Chhattisgarh, is going to stage a strike from August 1, 2023, urging the government to hike the stipend given to Senior Residents (SRs), Junior Residents (JRs) and interns working in the state's medical colleges, informed the National Vice-President & Chairman of UDFA, Dr Lakshya Mittal.
Giving more details he said that on July 27, Thursday, all the doctors staged a protest by wearing a black ribbon during their duty hours. "The government should consider this strike as a warning. As there has been no response from its side, we are heading for an indefinite strike from August 1," he added. To recall, this would be their second strike in six months. In January 2023, the association called for a strike to seek a hike in stipends for Junior Residents.
Quoting the stipend details of doctors by referring to an official notice, Mittal said, that the current stipend for interns is Rs 12,600. Meanwhile, for the first, second and third-year PG Resident Doctors, the current stipends are Rs 53,550, Rs 56,700 and Rs 59,220, respectively. And the stipend for post-PG bonded doctors is Rs 55,000.
Reacting to this, Mittal alleges, "In other parts of entire India and neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Telangana, Karnataka, SRs get around Rs 80-90,000 per month as stipends." Further, he points out that this is not fair.
Meanwhile, disclosing more details about the strike scheduled for August 1, he said around 7,000 doctors (interns, juniors and senior residents) from all state government medical colleges are expected to participate. "The entire services except emergency will be marked closed," he stressed.
To know more about the earlier protest, click here: https://www.edexlive.