Doctors associations move SC on pay cut issue

New Delhi, June 30: The Resident Doctors Associations of MAMC and AIIMS today moved an application in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Union Health Ministry not to deduct the salary of the doctors who participated in the anti-reservation strike from May 14 to June 3 this year.

The court in its order on May 31 while directing the doctors to call off their strike forthwith had also issued directions to the central government not to take any punitive action against the medicos.

The doctors of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in their application filed in their pending matter have also pleaded that as per rules they can be asked to work for ten hours a day. But sometimes, they are forced to work for 36 to 48 hrs at a stretch which is inhuman and violative of human rights.

According to them, the doctors do not object to such exploitation in view of abysmally low doctor patient ratio in the country as per international standards.

The applicants have also contended that going by the logic of the government of no work no pay, they must be given overtime for working extra hours.

The applicants have also sought directions from the court that the leave of internship and residency during the period May 14 to June 2 should be condoned so that the interns are not declared ineligible to appear in the examination for want of requisite qualification on this count.

The doctors have also alleged that despite the orders of the court against taking any punitive action, criminal cases have been registered against them in Mumbai, Pune and Kanpur which is nothing but punitive.

The doctors have also contended that they complied with the court orders and called off their strike immediately and the authorities are hell-bent on deducting the salary of resident doctors despite the opinion of the Additional Solicitor General to the contrary.

UNI

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