Resident doctor's strike enters third day

Mumbai: Resident doctors across Maharashtra, barring those from Nagpur Medical college, continued their indefinite strike for the third day on Thursday despite government assurances to resolve their grievances.

"The strike will continue till our demands are met, especially on increase of stipend at par with the Central Residency Scheme, which is adopted by many states," Maharashtra Association of Resident doctors (MARD) secretary Dr Anil Dudhabhate said.

The Maharashtra government had on Wednesday appealed to the striking doctors to withdraw their strike to help tackle possible spurt of diseases during monsoons.

Principal secretary of Medical Education, Bhushan Gagrani said the government assured them of resolving their grievances, which however, MARD refuses to accept.

"We want government to give in writing their assurances and not through media and also implement the demands with immediate effect," Dudhabhate said.

However, Gagrani said, the doctors' demand of increasing stipend as per Central Residency Scheme cannot be met immediately.

Gagarani said only the reasonable demands of the resident doctors can be taken into consideration. The doctors across the state went on indefinite strike since Tuesday night demanding higher stipend, better living conditions and enhancement of security among other things.

"The resident doctors working in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other northern states are given a stipend of between Rs 35,000 and Rs 45,000 per month for eight hours of daily work," Dudhabhate said.

However, Gagrani said only AIIMS and Tata Hospital have accepted the Central Residency Scheme in the state. Other medical colleges were paying between Rs 6,000 and Rs 25,000 as stipend, he said.

The state government is also checking legal aspects of the strikes, which have become a yearly affair, sources from the Medical Education Department said.

On the security and living conditions of resident doctors, the government repeated its promises once again and said it is making arrangements for providing them more security and better living conditions.

The Medical Education Minister, Health Minister and Finance Minister are expected to meet soon to discus increase in stipend for resident doctors, Gagrani said.

Meanwhile, senior doctors who had to bear the load of the resident doctors for indoor patients expected a breakthrough in the issue at the earliest.