The Legal Coordination Committee (LCC) for government doctors has appealed to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to fulfil their demands before February 7, the third anniversary of their colleague Lakshmi Narasimhan’s death.
The LCC, in a statement signed by S. Perumal Pillai, its president, said that 19,000 government doctors are upset that the government had not fulfilled their demand for a salary hike, despite their “paying such a huge price”.
During the previous government’s regime the Health Minister then had given a written assurance that the demands of the doctors would be fulfilled within six weeks. When that did not happen, the doctors went on an indefinite strike in October 2019, but had withdrawn their strike after the then Chief Minister’s request.
As many as 118 doctors were transferred to places 500 km away from their homes, and they were also charged for violation of work rules. The LCC has also demanded that these transfers be revoked.
The LCC claimed that the distress of the 40 women doctors who were punished, upset Lakshmi Narasimhan, a government doctor who was a huge support to his colleagues, who died of a heart attack on February 7, 2020. The LCC recalled that the present CM M.K. Stalin, had condoled his death and blamed the AIADMK government for the death. He had also condemned the punishment meted out to the government doctors.
“The one who condemned the government of that day has not resolved the agony of the doctors,” the LCC rued.
The committee termed the struggle for salaries a “people’s struggle to save the health sector”.
