Kerala junior doctors in hundreds are set to resign if the Pinaryi Vijayan government doesn’t stop them treating unfairly.
As the Covid-19 cases rise in the state, junior doctors have upped their revolt. As many as 868 of them, belonging to the Covid First-Line Treatment Centres (CFLTCs), and other state-run health care centres, have told the health department they would resign on September 10 if the government doesn’t go back on its resolve to deduct 20 per cent of their salaries along with other tax deductions.
However, the government is yet to provide an assurance to the doctors who are on the verge of mass resignation.
Further, the Kerala Junior Doctors’ Association has alleged maltreatment on pay-scale matter whereas their peers from the National Health Mission are being provided with the fully pay without any deduction.
The junior doctors who were employed for the past three months were promised to be paid Rs.42,000 by the government. However, the government decided to deduct 20 per cent as ‘salary challenge’ which is part of an earlier state government decision to generate revenue due to the drastic drop in state revenues due to lockdowns.
Along with the salary challenge, the government also decided to deduct taxes from the salaries of the junior doctors who have been posted as Temporary Medical Officers in the various government hospitals.
“We are working continuously for ten days without a break at the CFLTCs and work on shift basis tirelessly at the primary health centres like all other doctors. But the government and the health department has backtracked on their assurances and humiliated us”, said Ousam Hussain, a junior doctor at the Cheruvady primary health centre in Kozhikode to timesnownews.com.
