On their first day of the hunger strike, Yuva sena chief Aditya Thackeray lent his support to protesting intern doctors at Kamgar Maidan near KEM hospital.
On their first day of the hunger strike, Yuva sena chief Aditya Thackeray lent his support to protesting intern doctors at Kamgar Maidan near KEM hospital. The interns have been persuading the state government to accept their long-pending demand for a hike in stipends.
Over 400 interns of government medical colleges across Maharashtra assembled at the maidan on Monday. Dhaval Shah, Mumbai co-ordinator, Association of State Medical Interns (ASMI) said, “Thirty-six of us are on indefinite hunger strike, while we have formed batches for a chain hunger strike. Each batch is on an eight-hour hunger strike round the clock. We have been demanding a proportionate hike in our stipend. Authorities assured us they will look into the matter but so far, nothing is working out.”ASMI representatives met the authorities at the Mantralaya. However after they refused to take action, ASMI has decided to continue the strike.
Dr P Shingare, joint director, Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), Dr TP Lahane, dean of JJ hospital and Aditya Thackeray visited the interns in the afternoon. “Thackeray promised us that he will be taking an appointment with the chief minister and help us sort out our problem. The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) has also assured us their support,” said Shah.
MARD has decided to join ASMI actively if the government fails to resolve the issue by Wednesday. Dr Pankaj Nalawade, general secretary, MARD, said, “We have been supporting the ASMI strike from outside but if the government fails to meet their demands, we will join them actively from Thursday.” MARD and ASMI had gone on a token strike on March 25 after which the government assured them that the issues will be resolved.
The interns had filed an RTI with the ministry of health and family welfare a month ago. “We received a reply to our RTI a few days ago. It mentions a 2008 notification passed by the ministry which states that interns should get 40% of the junior resident doctor’s salary. A junior resident doctor gets around Rs27,000 per month. As per the notification, we should get at least Rs12,000 per month,” said Shah.
According to ASMI’s demand, they want a stipend of Rs13,000 per month with 10% increment every year. “We are not asking for something we do not deserve. We work round the clock.
Authorities have to respect our work. And now that there is a notification, they should immediately rectify things,” added Shah.
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