Resident doctors of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital went on an indefinite strike from Monday over non-payment of salaries and dearness allowance (DA). Their salaries have been pending for the last two months and DA for five months.
Tanuraj Tyagi, president of the hospital’s Resident Doctors’ Association, said the resident doctors have withdrawn their services until their “salaries and pending DAs are paid”.
“We will not help with emergency services and other duties. For the next three days, the Diplomate of National Board residents will handle the emergency services. We are not stopping the hospital from functioning. We have been deferring our strike since November 8 on account of the dengue situation, but we have received no assurance regarding our basic pay. We do not want patients to suffer,” said Dr. Tyagi.
Nurses at the North MCD-run hospital have also been on half-day strikes, for more than a week, over non-payment of salaries and are continuing with their protest.
“Some doctors have been listed as defaulters at banks because they were unable to pay their loans and EMIs, this is because they have not received their basic pay. The delay in salaries happens every year, even during the Covid-19 pandemic last year when we worked non-stop and had to face the discrimination that came with it. How do we maintain our lives if we don’t get our basic pay?” a resident doctor, who did not wish to be named, said.
Last week, the Municipal Corporation Doctor’s Association (MCDA) had written a letter to authorities on pending salaries of health workers under the North civic body, and said that they were free to “call for [a] strike of doctors” due to the non-payment of salaries and pending DAs.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “Municipal staff including doctors and the people of Delhi know that the North MCD is unable to pay salaries as the Kejriwal Government is withholding its funds.”
“People and civic staff well understand that, as civic elections are approaching, [the] Delhi Government is hell-bent on tarnishing the image of the BJP-led civic bodies and will not release funds for next few months as they want more sections of civic staff including sanitation workers to [go on] strike,” he added.
(With inputs from Jatin Anand)
