Delhi: Civic doctors write to PM Modi, seek intervention in salary issue

The secretary of the association, Dr Maruti Sinha told Medical Dialogues, " We have been struggling for almost three years to get a regular salary but in vain. We knocked on every door and even considered going on strike but nothing worked. It seems like the new normal that there will be two to three months of delay and we will go on strike and then get pour due. We last went on strike in March and received our salaries but again it was delayed."

She further added, "The government has already revised the DA twice in 2021 by GOI & revised in SDMC & EDMC but the same has not been revised by North MCD in our pay till date. Currently, the resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital and Guurdhari Lal Hospital have raised their voices and have gone on pen-down strike to highlight the demands."

In the letter written to PM, the association stated, " Senior service Doctors of MCD have to repeatedly protest for payment of their salaries despite it being their legitimate right, which has not been paid to them for the past two months. North MCD is neither able to manage funds for salary payments to its Health workers nor it is willing to hand over the Health Services to Central Government or State Government as advised by Hon'ble High Court, Delhi. Furthermore, it appears as if all higher authorities/ Institutions of this country are more helpless than us in ensuring timely payment of salaries to doctors & other healthcare workers."

The association further mentioned, " this time we were even deprived from celebrating Diwali due to no salary payments while the whole nation was celebrating it. Questionably, even our hard-earned savings in the form of GPF are not available to us for withdrawal even during such adverse time of financial crisis, suggesting unauthorized diversion of our GPF savings for other purposes even though such diversion is not permissible under law. "

The protesting doctors pointed out that last time MCDA called off the strike following a written agreement between Commissioner/ North MCD, RDA & MCDA that timely payment of salaries will be done in the future. However, by defaulting on the payment of salaries for the last two months, North MCD has failed to honour the agreement hence the doctors will call for a strike.

"We may be informed whether our salaries, arrears & DA enhancement will be done only after observing the routine ritual of complete strike by doctors thereby putting the general public to extreme inconvenience or will be disbursed without resorting to such extreme measures", added the doctor.

The association further stated, " In view of adverse financial hardship faced by us as stated above, this organization is forced to state that If our salaries are not paid within a week with enhanced DA and our arrears not cleared, then we will be forced to take a call on strike, despite not wanting any inconvenience to the public. In such a scenario, the onus of strike shall lie with the authorities and not with the MCDA. We sincerely hope that North MCD will immediately pay our salaries and arrears in the larger public interest so that any inconvenience to patients can be avoided."