The resident doctors of KEM Hospital in Parel sold fruits outside the campus on Thursday to protest against the irregular payment of stipend to resident doctors from five government medical colleges in the State for the past seven months. Over 1,000 resident doctors in Nagpur, Akola, Aurangabad, Ambejogai, and Latur have not received their stipend since October.
The protesters have vowed to intensify their stir if authorities fail to keep their promise of paying stipends before the year-end. Dr. Lokeshkumar Chirwatkar, president of Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors, said, “Despite several meetings with State authorities, the issue has not been resolved. We had no choice but to protest.”
Dr. Chirwatkar said they had started protesting when attacks on them increased owing to lack of basic medicines in hospitals. He said, “Some hospitals did not even have medicines like paracetamol or vitamins. After our protest, the medicine supply became better, but stipends became irregular.”
‘Cash running out’
The Personal Ledger Account Fund in government medical colleges is used to purchase medicines and equipment for hospitals, provide stipend to resident doctors and pay the salaries of security guards. Dr. Pravin Shingare, director of Directorate of Medical Education and Research, said the five colleges fell short of money to pay the stipend as the deans had used the fund to purchase medicines.
Dr. Shingare said, “We are trying to get the Finance Department to sanction the funds so that we can pay the stipend of the resident doctors in the next two days.”
