Govt. agrees to hike junior doctors' stipend by 50 p.c.

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, JAN. 22. The State Government has agreed to give a hike of 50 per cent on the present stipend amount to junior doctors, and asked them to give up the agitation and join duties keeping in view the sufferings inflicted on people.

Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, the Minister for School Education, Mr. K. Srihari, and the Minister for Medical and Health, Dr. S. Aruna, said that the Chief Minister responded favourably to the demands of the striking doctors after a delegation met him in the morning.

The 50 per cent hike meant substantial increase in the amounts to various categories, they said. House surgeons, who were getting Rs. 2,099 earlier, would now get Rs. 2,900, first year P.G. students would get Rs. 4,800 instead of Rs. 3,148, second year students Rs. 5,000 instead of Rs. 3,324 and third year students Rs. 5,200 instead of Rs. 3,498.

PG Diploma students are now entitled to a stipend of Rs. 4,800 (first year) and Rs. 5,000 (second year).

Those doing super specialities would get Rs. 5,500 and Rs. 6,000.

The Ministers said that it was the best offer the Government could make and it was upto the striking doctors to favourably respond by joining duties. There was concurrence on four other demands.

They said the Government had agreed to 50 per cent hike despite the fact that it meant an additional burden of Rs. 4.24 crores per annum on this count.

Strike continues

According to a report from Guntur, the doctors ``continued'' their strike which was ``temporarily suspended'' on Thursday night, the general secretary of the AP Junior Doctors' Association, Dr. M. Jayachandra Naidu, said.

Dr. Naidu said the Chief Minister ``failed to stick to his promise''. Though the doctors believed that the Chief Minister would implement the promise, the change of stance was indicated when the Government made it clear that their problems were under the consideration of the Cabinet sub-committee.

He sought to know how far the ``breach of promise'' by the Chief Minister was justified. Dr. Naidu said that the Chief Minister should own up the responsibility for the loss and inconvenience caused to poor people due to the doctors' strike.

Meanwhile, the junior doctors in King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam served an ultimatum on the State Government for resolving their issues amicably by Sunday morning failing which they would stop attending even emergency cases and intensify the agitation.

Announcing this at a press conference, Dr. Someswar, leader of the junior doctors, revealed that they had already served a strike notice again and resumed their strike on Saturday to attend only emergency cases.

The Government should come out with a decision by 8 a.m. on Sunday, he said. A joint action committee with representatives of post-graduates, under-graduates and house-surgeons was formed to decide the further course of action, he stated.

``We have called off our strike as soon as our Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, assured us of resolving our issues immediately. But nothing has been done till date and though our leaders are making frantic efforts to meet him, he has failed to respond properly for the last couple of days. This is not what we expect of a hi-tech Chief Minister.''

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