Date:05/07/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/07/05/stories/2002070507410300.htm

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Medicos on strike for higher stipend

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM JULY 4. The functioning of the Medical College Hospital and Dental Hospital here is likely to be affected, with the post-graduate students in these hospitals launching an agitation to press for a higher stipend.

In a statement here today, the Post-Graduate Students' Association president, S. Vijay Mohan, said that as a first step, the students would boycott what he called the nominal stipend and work all 24 hours as part of a State-wide agitation.

He said talks with the authorities concerned had not yielded results and if the association's demand was not conceded, the functioning of the Medical College would be badly hit.

In another statement, the secretary of the Confederation of Medicos & Junion Doctors, Santhosh Kumar, criticised the Government's step of slashing the stipend of PG students and house surgeons while at the same time hiking the fees.

He said that while the annual fees had been increased to Rs. 25,000, the PG students and house surgeons were being paid Rs. 4,000 for working round-the-clock. Unless this "anomaly'' was corrected, the confederation would go ahead with its agitational plans.