By IANS,
Bangalore : Over 3,500 Karnataka government doctors Tuesday submitted their resignation protesting the “meagre” hike in salaries. The treatment of patients was, however, not affected as the doctors have given the government two weeks to either accept their demands or their resignations.
The doctors went ahead with their letters, rejecting the appeal of the state’s retiring Chief Secretary Sudhakar Rao to wait till Oct 4.
“Since 2005, the government has been giving such assurances. We rejected the chief secretary’s appeal at a meeting with him and 3,681 doctors submitted the resignation to the director of health and family welfare department,” G.A. Srinivas, a spokesperson for the doctors, told IANS.
Rao, husband of foreign secretary Nirupama Rao who retires as chief secretary Wednesday and has been appointed member of the Central Administrative Tribunal, called the doctors for a meeting as Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his cabinet colleagues are out of Bangalore.
The entire state cabinet is in Suttur, about 150 km from here, for a three-day brain-storming session addressed by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley.
Srinivas said there was a possibility of a meeting with Yeddyurappa on Sunday.
“We told the chief secretary that instead of asking us to wait till Oct 4, let the government take decision by then,” Srinivas told IANS.
The doctors are demanding that their pay at entry level be nearly doubled, from the present Rs.18,500 per month to Rs.35,000 per month.
The government has offered a hike of between Rs.3,000 and Rs.8,000.
According to Srinivas, another 400 doctors would also submit their resignation in a day or two. They were asked to stay back in their hospitals across Karnataka so that treatment of patients was not affected.