With the pressing demands of Junior resident doctors of Government Ayurved colleges such as Nagpur, Osmanabad & Nanded for a hike in stipend, the PG Associations has been on strike for many days but the governments stand on this matter is still not known they haven’t taken any solid steps regarding the said issue. Due to which there are sheer disappointment and disbelief amongst our resident doctors of the state.
National Integrated Medical Association Student Forum (NIMA) will be calling for statewide agitation if justice is not served quickly. The Maharashtra government agreed upon increasing the stipend of the resident doctors by 10,000 but this hike was only levied on MBBS & BDS resident doctors, thus directly neglecting the Ayurved resident doctors through & through who have ‘parity’ status to their counterpart medical and dental residents.
The Ayurved resident doctors have risen to the occasion in this pandemic and have catered to dedicated Covid needs of the state right from April month. The Ayurved residents were posted in dedicated Covid hospitals, swab collection & Covid Care Centres right from April month across the state.
The residents of Medical and Dental hospital are given rest or quarantine period after COVID duty and once they have served this time period they are given NON-COVID duty but such is not the case with Ayurved residents as they are directly denied of any rest or quarantine period in between COVID duty.
The Ayurved residents too need their fair share of leave and rest like the medical college residents. The state government and the local administration is directly playing unfairly with our Ayurved residents read the press note.
According to the GR dated 26, May 1981 the state government stated that Ayurved physicians & students share parity status with their counterparts of MBBS physicians & students entitled to the equal stipend. When the state government itself considers these doctors the same then why is the state government deliberately sided Ayurved residents is the question of the hour? What is the cause of making the difference in the amount of stipend amongst MBBS and BAMS residents? “Same work, same pay” is our right then why is the government acting differently?
Ayurved residents as well as Ayurved Interns are working in frontline right from April without any hesitance. More than 100+ residents and interns of Ayurveda have contracted COVID-19 since the pandemic has started. Under such circumstances, the government and local authorities should encourage the doctors instead of discouraging them. As per the state government doctors posted in COVID duties are entitled to COVID incentives but forget incentives there are sheer irregularities in the payment of pending stipends both Ayurved residents and Ayurved interns right from the start of the pandemic.
Why is the government not keen on paying our rightful stipends on time?
For the said issue NIMA has continuously as and when required has notified the concerned authorities but we received no response from the concerned authorities and state. Due to such apathy the nearly 300 Ayurved residents of Government Ayurved College Nagpur, Nanded, Osmanabad have resorted to strike.
As of now, the Ayurved residents have been on strike for 7 days, but the government hasn’t taken any solid step regarding this issue. We expect that The medical education minister to solve the issues of medical students regardless of Pathy, but the minister is still not saying regarding the issue.
According to the Director of AYUSH, Maharashtra the proposal of hike in stipend has been sent to the state government on 7, July 2020 which means that the proposal of Ayurved was also in consideration. But the hike was announced only for medical and dental residents on 12, August 2020.
Why government brushed the Ayurved residents aside? The question arises is the Director of AYUSH, Maharashtra misguiding us or the officer’s state in-charge delaying stipend hike to our residents.
If the said issue hasn’t been addressed & justice is not served as soon as possible then NIMA will call out statewide agitation. NIMA student forum is a warning, the state government will be solely responsible for any misconduct that happens during agitation read the press note.
