- The MCDA, a committee of Senior Permanent Residents of the Civic Hospitals, was founded in 1974.
- The MCDA had warned to proceed with an indefinite strike from October 19.
- Five of the resident doctors of the Hindu Rao Hospital are sitting on a hunger strike.
THDNewsDesk, New Delhi: On October 26, Senior doctors of North Corporation-run hospitals went on a day-long casual leave. The dilemma over pending wages of medics of civic-run departments came with no solution.
On Monday, R R Gautam, President of the Municipal Corporation Doctors Association (MCDA), stated, “If our demands are not met, we will go on indefinite strike from tomorrow.”
The MCDA, a committee of Senior Permanent Residents of the Civic Hospitals, was founded in 1974. They have about 1,200 members. It also includes doctors from hospitals run by the other two municipal corporations.
On Saturday, the MCDA announced a statement and warned NDMC that if their wages of the last three months were not paid, they would proceed with a mass casual leave.
The corporation has given adequate time to the officials concerned to solve the problem and pay the wages, “but they have not done anything to solve the problem, and instead, they appear to be unconcerned with the plight of doctors,” it stated.
Lately, it had also announced a statement manifesting unity with their distressed peers – resident doctors – of Hindu Rao Hospital and Kasturba Hospital, both under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), who are also battling over their pending wages.
Recently, the MCDA had warned to proceed with an indefinite strike from October 19. It had later decided to postpone the protest in “public interest.”
On Saturday, the committee held an emergency General Body Meeting. Maruti Sinha, the MCDA General Secretary, stated, “unanimously decided to protest against non-payment of our salaries for the past three months.”
The MCDA statement said, “The first decision taken in the General Body Meeting was mass casual leave by all senior doctors of the NDMC on Monday. And total strike for an indefinite period of all senior doctors from Tuesday, if salaries of all doctors, including resident doctors are not released by Monday, and if a permanent solution like handing over MCD health services to the central government, is not decided.”
The statement said that the officials are “solely responsible for this unprecedented strike, as they are neither bothered about their doctors – so-called ”Corona warriors” – nor are they concerned about patients and general.”
Since Friday, five of the 900-bed Hindu Rao Hospital resident doctors are sitting on a hunger strike. The catastrophe over the pending wages has intensified. The Resident Doctors Association (RDA) stated that this step was required, as no one is solving their pending payrolls.
On Sunday, Resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital took their turmoil to the streets as they showed up at Connaught Place and later torched an effigy of Ravana on the department’s campus to attract attention to their predicament.
