The Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) has requested the Tamil Nadu government to immediately grant the one-month incentive for frontline staff involved in COVID-19 work, and solatium of ₹50 lakh as announced earlier, instead of ₹25 lakh for families of those who have died during COVID-19 duty.
In a letter to the Health Secretary, the association urged the government to grant a government job to the legal heirs of frontline workers who have died during COVID-19 duty, and an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh for those who have tested positive for COVID-19.
The association also demanded that the government withdraw hundreds of mobile medical units deputed to Chennai, as COVID-19 cases were on the rise in other parts of the State.
FOGDA said that it was also requesting the government to provide a solatium of ₹50 lakh to the family of Jeyamohan, a Primary Health Centre medical officer, who died of dengue and scrub typhus while he was involved in COVID-19 work.
The government should ensure proper safety gear, food, transport and accommodation for frontline healthcare workers involved in combating COVID-19, the association said in the letter.
FOGDA pointed out that it has been almost a year since it demanded Dynamic Assured Career Progression pay, 50% service quota, amendment to Government Order 4D-2 and transfer counselling. The association requested the government to fulfil these demands, and also to reinstate the remaining doctors to their original positions after they were transferred for taking part in a strike last year. As many of them were in the promotion panel for the posts of dean, professor, chief civil surgeon and associates, FOGDA urged the government to drop the charges framed against them.
Among other demands, the association wanted the government to restore the Post Graduate increments for doctors that was stopped recently and re-post MBBS doctors to original districts in the Directorate of Public Health in the arising vacancies due to PG Admissions.
