Doc strike on,govt firm

Harbhajan Singh,Principal Secretary,Medical Education said: “We are trying to convince the doctors to withdraw their strike. All their legitimate demands will be met but they cannot force the government in this manner.”

He added: “The government is not insensitive and hence we have kept the harsh steps as the last option. The junior doctors are medical students and we are trying to explain them that an action against them would spoil their career.”

Asked that the NPA is already being given to the junior doctors of the Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU),Singh said the university has been asked to stop such allowance. “The government has agreed the proposal to include the NPA in the salary but the institutions were told that it would not be implemented till a formal government order is issued,” he said.

“The CSMMU and the SGPGIMS decided on their own to provide the NPA,” he added. We have asked the SGPGIMS to stop such an allowance till the formal order is issued,he added.

Meanwhile,the junior doctors of the Moti Lal Nehru Medical College (MLNMC) in Allahabad continued their strike on Saturday. One more death was reported today. The situation was grim in the state-owned SRN Hospital where almost all the wards looked deserted.

The local administration has declared the strike by the doctors illegal and issued instructions to the police to arrest them if they try to stage any demonstration in public.

“All of us have vacated the hostels and have come home fearing the arrest. But we will continue the strike till our demands are met,” said a junior doctor.

The protesting doctors alleged that the NPA was not included in their salary and there was a disparity between the salary of junior doctors of the CSMMU and their counterparts in other medical collages in the state.

The MLNMC principal,Dr PC Saxena,said the strike is illegal as medical services come under the essential services. “If they do not end the strike by Sunday,the college administration would initiate legal action against them including lodging of FIRs and cancellation of their admissions,” he said.