By IANS
Raipur : About 200 doctors and teachers of the Bhimrao Ambedkar Medical College and Hospital here Monday announced that they would go on an indefinite strike from Tuesday to push for their demands of long-overdue monetary benefits.
The Medical Teachers Association said they were forced to halt medical services because the government had offered to pay more than triple their salary to new recruitments at a new medical college coming up at Jagdalpur in Bastar district.
“There is a complete pay disparity. Raipur-based government doctors will call off the strike only if the same salary structure, accepted for the Jagdalpur Medical College, is implemented for Raipur government doctors as well,” R.K. Singh, president of the association, told reporters.
“Besides a salary hike, we demand residential facilities and regular doctors’ status to those appointed on contract basis,” Singh said.
The strike would cripple the health and medical facilities at the government hospital that treats around 850 patients daily, mostly from poor families.
The state government has appealed to the doctors not to go on strike as it was considering clearing the legal decks to accept their higher salary demands.
“Doctors should have patience and they should not build up unnecessary pressure on the government. Their salary problem and other monetary facilities will be definitely looked into,” said S.L. Adile, director of medical education.
The Bhimrao Ambedkar hospital is one of the most crowded hospitals of Chhattisgarh. It shot to fame last year when a team of doctors here successfully detached conjoined male twins who were attached at the stomach and shared a liver.