Hyderabad, November 11: Junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh continued their stir for the third day today, demanding hike in stipend on a par with their counterparts in other States.
”We have no option but to go on an indefinite strike if there is no response to our just demand from the State Government by this evening,” Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors’ Association Convenor S Nagesh told newspersons.
Health services in ten hospitals attached to medical colleges in the State were affected for over an hour following demonstrations, demanding a hike in stipend for House Surgeons to Rs 12,000 from Rs 5,060 per month and for Post-Graduate Medicos to Rs 30,000 from Rs 8,395.
The medicos symbolically burnt the effigy of the State Government which, they alleged, had neglected their demand for over ten years.
The medicos have stopped attending to poor patients coming for treatment under the State Government’s ‘Rajiv Aarogyasree’ Health Insurance Scheme. While PG medicos in neighbouring Orissa were getting Rs 25,000 per month, those in Jharkhand were paid Rs 30,000 per month, he claimed.
—–Agencies