As medicos continue strike, court asks Maharashtra for its stand

The Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench Friday asked the Maharashtra government to submit a statement on the ongoing strike by resident doctors in the state.

Hearing a public interest litigation of social organisation Nagpur Jan Manch, a division bench comprising Justice Dileep Sinha and Justice A.P.Bhangale asked the government to file its statement in the court July 13.

The Nagpur Jan Manch has demanded that the striking doctors should be sacked as they violated their undertaking before the high court in 2006 that they would not resort to a strike for their demands.

However, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) representative in Nagpur, Rahul Agrawal said that so far none of the 600 medicos on strike in three medical colleges in eastern Maharashtra has received any notice with regard to the court case.

The MARD strike by a total of 3,500 medicos, which has disrupted medical services in 14 state-run medical colleges across Maharashtra and three in Mumbai under the civic body, entered the fourth day without any solution in sight.

Several other medical and paramedical associations joined the strike Friday while many others have announced plans to strike in support of MARD.

The MARD is demanding a hike in their stipend in keeping with the growing expenditure on medical education, to make it on par with other central government medical colleges, MARD president Jivan Rajput said.

"Resident doctors in the state get only Rs.15,000, while our counterparts in New Delhi get Rs.52,000 per month and in other states, the stipend allowance is around Rs.45,000 per month," he told IANS here Friday.

As under the Central Residency Scheme, all doctors have equal responsibilities, rights, status and same examinations, then there should not be any discrimination in the stipend for doctors in Maharashtra, he said.

The strike has proved to be a harrowing experience for patients and their relatives, especially those from the weaker sections of society who cannot afford private medicare. While many are being refused admission to hospitals, others who are already admitted are not getting due medical attention.

The state government has already conducted one round of talks with MARD but to no avail, and is now contemplating invoking Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the striking doctors.

Rajput has warned that more doctors from other branches of medicine are also planning to join the strike and it could seriously hit the medical system if the state government failed to consider their demands.

Last updated on Jul 10^th, 2009 at 20:52 pm IST--IANS