Andhra junior doctors’ strike enters eighth day over stipend hike

Key points

• On the stipend demand, Pawan said the doctors were seeking parity with Telangana.
• As part of the protest, doctors tied their hands with dupattas and stethoscopes to symbolically convey that their “hands are…
• It is according to the administration’s GO.

VIJAYAWADA: The Junior Doctors Association (JUDA), representing postgraduate (PG) medical students, interns and senior residents, continued its protest at Government General Hospital (GGH) in Vijayawada on Tuesday, with the agitation entering its eighth day over a 15% stipend hike, recruitment norms and the proposed rise in the retirement age of professors.

As part of the protest, doctors tied their hands with dupattas and stethoscopes to symbolically convey that their “hands are tied” over the government’s response to the demands.

JUDA executive member and PG forensic medicine student Dr Naveen said “We have been asking for a 30 per cent stipend hike, but they informed us they will only give 3-5 per cent, so we agreed for 15 per cent. It is according to the administration’s GO. The GO says every two years there will be a 15% hike in the stipend. So our ask is to at least meet that. But the government is not agreeing and we have been in negotiations.”

“The government are recruiting non-clinical people in large numbers to teach first years, which is not right, because people who are doing MBBS and MD face a job crunch,” said Dr Pawan Kumar, a PG pulmonology student.

On the stipend demand, Pawan said the doctors were seeking parity with Telangana. “All we are asking is to be on par with the Telangana government as they are able to implement the GO, so now they are getting Rs 70,000-75,000. We don’t want to settle for the 3-5 per cent proposal because then it will become a habit for them. We are protesting peacefully,” he said. The doctors, on the eighth day, withdrew emergency services completely.