PG doctors at Osmania Medical College finally receive their stipends. But are their problems solved?

True to her words, Osmania Medical College's Principal, P Sashikala Reddy, aided the first-year Postgraduate resident doctors in receiving their stipends. Though the doctors had decided to boycott their duties from September 12 as a form of protest if they did not receive their stipends, a written letter from the principal led them to call off their strike. And on September 14, the stipends were paid.

“The stipends were duly credited into the doctors’ account yesterday,” informed Dr Karthik Nagula, State President of Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association (JUDA). He additionally informed that the pending amount till July 2022 was cleared.

The protesting doctors had claimed that they had not received any funds at all for a seven-month stretch. They blamed the college officials for this delay. The principal, when the doctors approached her, stated that she would make sure their stipends are paid on time and that strict action would be taken against the officials in case of a further delay.

Dr Srikanth Sativada, of Osmania JUDA informs that six months’ stipends has been paid now, but the Directorate of Medical Education (DME), to whom the letters for disbursing stipends regularly had been submitted, has given no written assurance that the stipends would be regularly paid henceforth. This has the doctors worried.

Moreover, the Postgraduate doctors said that they have also put forth another request to the DME that the income tax not be deducted from their stipends. “They started deducting the income tax from the month of April,” Dr Nagula stated. “They did not inform us beforehand or gave any notification that this was going to be done,” Dr Sativada added.

The doctors said that the Andhra Pradesh government has stopped deducting the income tax from the doctors’ stipends via a Government Order (GO). The doctors in Telangana want a similar GO from their state government. Dr Nagula informed that the DME has considered their request and said that the tax wouldn’t be deducted in the upcoming months. “But we are not sure. They have not given any written assurance for this as well,” he said.