Interns of Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital started their indefinite strike on Wednesday in protest against non-disbursal of their stipend for three months creating adverse impact on the essential services of the TVMCH even as the COVID-19 cases are on the rise.
The students, who have pitched a ‘shamiana’ on the TVMCH premises for continuing the agitation, said the interns, who were mostly relying on the stipend being given by the Tamil Nadu Government to meet their expenses, were in a difficult situation after it was not paid for the past three months. Even after getting money from the parents all these years, the interns, who have to take care of their own expenses through the stipend, had to disturb their parents again for the government’s failure.
Besides giving this arrear of ₹ 75,000 immediately, the Tamil Nadu Government should give the assurance that the stipend would be given to the interns every month.
Moreover, the COVID-19 incentive of ₹ 15,000 given by the Tamil Nadu Government to all ‘frontline COVID warriors’, should be extended to the interns, who were serving the patients undergoing treatment with the deadly viral infection round-the-clock for several weeks together, they said.
Following the agitation by the interns, services in the Intensive Medical Care Unit, Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Intensive Surgical Care Unit, labour board room, labour Intensive Care Unit, Intensive Trauma Care Unit and Intensive Coronary Care Unit were hit.
“We observed token strike on Tuesday to highlight our demand. However, there is no response from the TVMCH administration and the Ministry of Public Health. So, we’ve been forced to go on indefinite strike and will boycott all essential services until our demand is met,” they said.
Dean, TVMCH, M. Ravichandran met the interns around 4 p.m. and assured them that their stipend would be credited in their accounts by Thursday morning and appealed to them to give up their agitation. While ending their protest for the day, they said they would resume their agitation on Thursday morning at the same place if the promise was not fulfilled.
