Doctors in Government hospitals in Delhi went on a strike on Thursday, demanding an increase in their salaries and allowances.
They also threatened to go on an indefinite strike from June 1 if their demands are not fulfilled. The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), an umbrella organisation of 15,000 resident doctors across 41 Government hospitals in Delhi, has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to revise the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission that they said were “particularly discriminating to doctors”.
All the resident doctors from various parts of the country came in support of the resident doctors in Delhi. They wore black ribbons to press for their demands. The agitating doctors have assured that the medical services will be started from Friday.
A statement from the FORDA, an organisation of around15,000 resident doctors from across 41 Government hospitals in the Delhi said all the resident doctors were off their medical duties on Thursday.
“Echoing our voice, doctors working for Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) Patna , Ayush doctors, Central Government Health Scheme of various despensaries, JIPMER Puducherry, CGHS Vijaynagar Meerut, CGHS Shillong, CHHS polyclinic Allahabad — all came in support of agitating doctors in Delhi by wearing black ribbions,” said Dr D Durga, Vice President FORDA,
Dr Pankaj Solanki, president FORDA, is continuously agitating against the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission since November last year. “We are strongly opposing the recommendations and a lot of discrimination have been made against the interest of the medical professions,” he said.
Dr Solanki said when 7th CPC was made we doctors were very hopeful that our demands will be looked after, which is increasing Non-Practising Alllowance (NPA) to 40 per cent from existent 25 per cent, instead it has been reduced to 20 per cent.
Doctors said the basic pay and NPA were merged together while calculating House Rental Allowance (HRA) earlier, but this now omitted and HRA will be calculated only with basic pay resulting in less than desired salary.