Over 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra began an indefinite strike on Friday demanding a waiver of their educational fees and risk incentives for services rendered during the pandemic.
The Maharashtra State Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), the apex association of resident doctors of all government medical colleges and hospitals in the state, has sought to waive their academic fees on the grounds that there were no classes during the pandemic and that they were not allowed to attend them from day one. was put into service.
The resident doctors also sought a COVID-19 exposure incentive for the services provided during the pandemic.
The association said that the hostel conditions in government medical college hospitals should be improved and TDS (tax deducted at source) should not be deducted from the stipends of resident doctors in the hospitals under the jurisdiction of Brihanmumbai Mumbai Corporation (BMC).
While outpatient department (OPD) services and vaccination drives were affected by the strike, the association assured that emergency services like disaster relief would remain unaffected in districts including the Marathwada region, which was currently facing a flood-like situation.
The association said there would be no elective or elective surgeries in government or municipal corporation-run hospitals till the strike ends.
Since May, senior resident doctors have been complaining about not getting salary hike or risk fund. They had even threatened strike at that time, due to the fact that they were carrying out the major task of combating COVID-19 in government medical colleges and hospitals.
“We have been raising our complaints for the last five months, but the government has not taken any action in this matter. We were not given any written assurance. Hence, we are compelled to go on strike,” said MARD president Dnyaneshwar Dhoble Patil.
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