Telangana Junior Doctors call off strike over pending stipends after assurance

Hyderabad: Junior Doctors at government hospitals in Telangana, led by the members of the Junior Doctors Association (JUDA), have decided to call off their strike after Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr K Ramesh Reddy assured the doctors that their demand would be met soon regarding the District Residency Programme (DRP) and pending stipends. 

Raising their voice against the state government, the doctors protested by wearing black badges on Saturday, highlighting the poor working facilities given by the government. They wore black badges demanding that PG students attending DRP be given sufficient accommodations, security, and food amenities.

Their demands also included raising stipends by 15 percent, providing a written guarantee that stipends will be credited by the 10th of each month, and clearing pending stipends for February and March.

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In response to this, Dr Reddy held a meeting on Monday and informed that the first batch of the DRP would be allotted to a different hospital near parent hospitals so that they can get sufficient accommodations, security, and food amenities. A notice regarding this is said to be released soon. 

"Further the demands on the hike in the stipend would also be met and a government order concerning a 15 percent hike would be implemented in 20 days. The pending stipends for February and March would be released within a week," Reddy informed the DC. 

Earlier, the protesting doctors wrote a letter to DME Dr Reddy informing them that their demands were not fulfilled despite the guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

The Health Secretary promised that the government would give accommodation and food to PG students providing services in district hospitals in accordance with NMC rules, but the concerned district hospital superintendents allegedly refused to provide said facilities. 

Speaking to The Hindu, Telangana Junior Doctors Association (JUDA) president Kaushik said “Though the office of the Director of Medical Education was kind enough to forward our stipend bills and file on stipend hike, neither the stipends are getting credited to our accounts nor has there been a raise. If the government fails to address these issues immediately, we will boycott our services, excluding emergency duties, from April 11.”

Dr Kaushik Kumar Pinjarla, president of the Junior Doctors' Association said "Since the assurance had been given by the authorities to meet their demands, as of now they had put the strike on hold. In case the administration failed to act upon its word, the junior doctors will call for a statewide protest from May 3 onwards."

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