Telangana AYUSH doctors take stipend fight to Commissionerate office

Frustration among Telangana's AYUSH house surgeons and PG scholars boiled over on Thursday, with nearly a hundred of them marching into the AYUSH Commissionerate office in Secunderabad, demanding that officials sit down and talk. It is the 17th day of the agitation.

The protest is rooted in a pay gap that has persisted for years. Under the Telangana AYUSH Joint Action Committee's banner, medicos point out that their stipend has barely been revised since 2016, even though a government order, GO Ms No. 77, is supposed to guarantee them pay on par with Allopathy. Dr Anurag Singh of the Telangana State Ayurveda PG and House Surgeons Association said Allopathy stipends have gone up eight times in the last decade and a half, while AYUSH stipends have increased only three times, despite a similar workload.

The difference is reflected in the stipend figures. An Allopathy PG in Telangana receives Rs 67,032 to Rs 74,782 a month, while an AYUSH PG gets Rs 30,947 to Rs 34,385. For house surgeons, the figures are Rs 29,792 for Allopathy and Rs 13,754 for AYUSH. In Andhra Pradesh, following a Supreme Court intervention, both streams are paid Rs 26,000, while states such as Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have crossed Rs 95,000 for AYUSH scholars.

The JAC says it has approached the health and finance ministers, the health secretary and the AYUSH director, but no decision has been taken. The association has also alleged that a college principal in Warangal warned undergraduate students against supporting the strike and threatened to inform their parents. The JAC described the move as intimidation.

The agitation has received support from former state health official Dr G Srinivasa Rao and the BJP's state unit, which has criticised the Congress government over the issue.

Around 6,000 AYUSH house surgeons and PG scholars across Telangana are part of the agitation.