A majority of the service and non-service post graduate (PG) doctors, who were deputed to Chennai for COVID-19 duty, are yet to receive their salaries for two months.
It was in June that the PG doctors were diverted to government hospitals in Chennai when there was a surge in COVID-19 cases. They were relieved recently and returned to their original stations.
P. Saminathan, State secretary, Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association, said nearly 1,000 service PGs were relieved from their parent institution - government hospitals where they gave virtual joining reports - and were deputed to Chennai in early June.
“Once they joined duty, the respective pay drawing officers of their parent institutions should have started to prepare their pay bills for submission in the treasury. But this did not happen for weeks, resulting in delay in paying them their salaries. In fact, the necessary government orders, instructions from the directorates of medical education and medical and rural health services were issued, but the ministerial staff who are supposed to do the work have not done it. Less than 30% of the doctors have received their salaries for two months,” he said.
One of the service PGs, who was on COVID-19 duty in the city, said on condition of anonymity, “We are yet to receive our salaries for June and July. It will take 15 minutes to upload and transfer our details. But the ministerial staff who are supposed to do this work have delayed the process.”
A section of doctors pointed out that transition from e-payroll to Integrated Financial and Human Resources Management System for payment of salary was happening in a number of districts. The technical processes involved in this was also delaying disbursal of salaries, they said.
This was completely a digital process, but profiles were yet to be created for them in order to pay the salaries. “This included updating service records till the day of relieving and sending to the newly posted station (hospital). Attendance certificate should be sent from the COVID-19 hospitals in Chennai to which we were deputed to our newly posted stations.” Already, the last pay drawn certificate was sent by email to the joint directors,” a PG doctor said.
Another PG doctor added that only around 300 doctors received their salary. “A number of service PGs are married. Many of them are single earning members in the families and have to take care of household expenses and pay EMI towards loans. Not paying the salaries on time has put many in a difficult situation,” he said.
A non-service PG said many of them were yet to receive consolidated pay of ₹75,000. “We joined work in June and were relieved in August. Our salaries are still under process. A few of them who received the salary got ₹50,000 and the remaining has been deducted as tax. There is no explanation for this as we are given a consolidated pay,” the doctor said.
An official said there was a delay in a few medical colleges in disbursal of salaries due to updating the electronic codes. “They will receive the salaries within a week,” he said.
