Doctors at Delhi’s Hindu Rao Hospital went on a half-day pen-down strike on Monday over the non- payment of salaries for the past three months.
The resident doctors have also not got their dearness allowance (DA) since the past five months.
A total of 200 doctors staged the strike from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and will again protest in a similar manner on November 16 and 17.
Hindu Rao hospital RDA president Tanuraj Tyagi told IANS: “We have not been paid salary for past three months and our DA is pending for five months. From today onwards, we have started pen-down strike for three days, thereafter we will go on an indefinite strike.”
The RDA doctors, in a letter to the Medical Superintendent (MS) dated November 11, had threatened to go on a pen-down strike on November 15, 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and an indefinite strike from November 18, if pending salaries and DA are not paid by the evening of November 14.
“If our salaries and DA up to date are not released on or before November 14, we will go on pen-down strike strike on November 15, 16 and 17 from 9 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. and unfortunately we will go on indefinite strike from November 18 on Thursday,” read the letter to the MS. The nurses of the hospital are also protesting over salary issues.
As the RDA doctors staged the protest, senior doctors attended to the patients, Tyagi said.
Over 50 per cent nurses’ posts and a large number of doctors’ posts are lying vacant in the MCD-run 980-bed Hindu Rao hospital.