NEW DELHI: After holding protests for two days, the resident doctors of North Delhi’s Hindu Rao Hospital have decided to go on an indefinite strike from next week to press for a resolution of their salary issues. However, they have said that they will A plea has also been filed in the Delhi court through advocate Ashok Agarwal, seeking directions to North civic body to disburse salaries pending for three months, along with the wages of primary teachers as well.run a separate Out Patients Department (OPD), so that patients are not inconvenienced during the stir.
“We have given 48 hours to the authorities concerned to come up with a concrete solution to our salary issues. From May 20 onwards, we will go on an indefinite strike if our demands are not met by then. However, we don’t want the patients to suffer and will, hence, run a parallel OPD,” Rahul Chaudhary, President, Resident Doctors Association, Hindu Rao Hospital, said.
In a letter addressed to the Medical Superintendent, the RDA said, “With due respects, it has been notified that there will be an agitation followed by strike. Since the issue raised in (a) meeting with (the) additional commissioner on 17 May is not resolved yet, we will continue the strike for (an) indefinite time from Monday.
”The doctors of this civic body-run hospital haven’t received their salaries for three months, owing to which around 400 resident doctors went on a strike for two days (Thursday and Friday) — from 9.30pm to 12.30pm.
A doctor from Kasturba Gandhi hospital, which is also run by the North civic body, said on condition of anonymity that resident doctors there have also not received their wages since February and are considering joining the Hindu Rao stir.“When we raised the salary issue, officials of the North civic body said they don’t have enough funds to pay us. While the MCD says funds haven’t been released by the state government, the latter claims they have,” Chaudhary said.
A plea has also been filed in the Delhi court through advocate Ashok Agarwal, seeking directions to North civic body to disburse salaries pending for three months, along with the wages of primary teachers as well.
The civic bodies have been battling severe financial crunch for quite a while now. According to the North civic body, the Delhi government has not paid `385 crore, the amount taxed for the first quarter, and it has written to the government to release the dues at the earliest to help it tide over its financial woes and meet its salary commitments.
Except for sanitation workers and group D staff, the civic agency has been holding off on the wages of other staffers, including resident doctors, over the last two months.While multiple calls to additional commissioner Jairaj Naik went unanswered, another official from MCD said that the matter has been taken up by the civic body.
‘patients will not suffer’
While deciding on an indefinite strike, the resident doctors have said that they will run a separate Out Patients Department (OPD), so that patients are not inconvenienced during the stir to claim wage arrears.