Kasturba Hospital doctors call off stir, paramedics to continue pen-down strike

New Delhi: A day after resident doctors of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run Hindu Rao Hospital called off their strike after pending salaries were released, their colleagues at Kasturba Hospital withdrew their fortnight-long agitation on Thursday.

The paramedic staff of Kasturba Hospital, however, announced a “three-hour pen-down strike” every day from Thursday until their salary backlog of four months is cleared.

Resident doctors of both hospitals had been protesting against non-payment of their salaries for the last three months.

Yogesh Kumar, a representative of Kasturba Hospital Paramedical Staff union, said the corporation’s move to selectively release salaries of doctors and other health workers was “dividing” in nature.

The corporation had on Tuesday released salaries of doctors till September 2020. Salaries of nursing staff were released till July 2020 and that of other health workers only till June.

“They cleared our salaries only till June 2020 while salaries of higher paid doctors were released up to September 2020. Why this division? Don’t we need money to survive? Salaries of four months remain pending and so we have decided to observe a three-hour long pen down strike everyday till our dues are cleared,” Kumar said.

Meanwhile, Dr Sunil Kumar, president of the Kasturba Hospital Resident Doctors’ Association, said the doctors decided to call off the strike after salaries till September were cleared on Wednesday.

Kumar said the pending salaries of paramedical and nursing staff of the hospital should be cleared soon.

“Our demand of a permanent solution to this problem is yet to be fulfilled. The civic authorities should make some arrangements so that no municipal employee, including paramedic and nursing staff, should suffer due to pending salaries. It’s hard for them too to work without money,” Kumar said.

Doctors of Kasturba Hospital had begun their strike on October 14 and those from Hindu Rao from October 5.

The situation had come to such a pass that Covid patients had to be shifted from Hindu Rao hospital, which was a designated Covid facility, to Delhi government hospitals .

North mayor Jai Prakash said, “We are making efforts to make the salaries of all our employees up to date. Efforts are being made to release the salaries of the remaining categories in a phased manner.”