The Legal Coordination Committee for Government Doctors has alleged that the Health and Family Welfare (HFW) Department of Tamil Nadu has been indifferent to its long-pending demands.
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In a statement issued on Sunday, S. Perumal Pillai, president of the committee, blamed the government and the HFW Department in particular for not fulfilling the demands of the doctors in spite of assurances.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, had promised that the government order 354 would be reviewed and implemented when the DMK came to power. The key demand of the doctors was to address pay disparity between them and their counterparts in the Central government and grant pay band 4 on completion of 12 years of service, he said.
Dr. Pillai said the Karnataka government accepted the demands of the doctors even before they launched a protest during the first wave of COVID-19. He asked why the Health Minister of Tamil Nadu was unable to understand the problem of government doctors.
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He said the Health Minister had failed to fulfil his promise of taking the representatives of doctors post Deepavali to meet the Chief Minister. The committee also blamed the government for failing to provide compensation to the family of Dr. Vivekanandan who died due to COVID-19. It also urged the government to release pension benefits to the family of Dr. Lakshmi Narasimhan who died nearly two years ago.