New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government Monday clarified that quarantine period of doctors and healthcare workers will be treated as “on duty” and not “on leave”.
In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Union Ministry of Health submitted that it had issued a directive in this context to all states on 6 August.
The central government’s stance came in response to the top court’s 31 July order, asking for a clarification on the issue after an application filed by United Resident Doctors Association (URDA) said a number of states were treating quarantine period as casual leave. The physicians’ group also said they were forced to apply for leave without pay in the absence of enough casual leaves.
A bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan had told the central government to respond to URDA’s application, filed through advocates Mithu Jain, Mohit Paul and Arnav Vidyarthi, which also said that salaries of doctors were being deducted for their compulsory quarantine period.
Following the top court’s order, the ministry had written to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on 3 August with the recommendation that frontline healthcare workers be marked as “on duty” due to occupational hazard or risk of exposure.
According to the government’s affidavit, the DoPT had agreed to the proposal on 5 August.
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‘Five states have cleared dues of doctors’
During the last hearing (31 July), the court had also directed the central government to ensure that salaries of doctors and healthcare workers are paid on time.
“If the states are not complying with the directions and orders of the central government, you are not helpless. You have to ensure that your order is implemented. You have got the power under the Disaster Management Act. You can take steps also,” the bench had told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.
Following this, the government wrote to five states — Maharashtra, Delhi, Tripura, Karnataka and Punjab — on 1 August, asking them to ensure there was no delay in releasing salaries of healthcare workers. A compliance report was also sought from the states.
According to the reports sent by these five states, the government told the court Monday, the pending salaries have been paid.
It, however, noted that doctors working at a polyclinic under the north municipal corporation of Delhi have not been paid salaries. This is despite the Delhi government having released the first installment of the grant-in-aid for this financial year.
Punjab, the government informed the bench, has cleared the dues for June. Salary bills for July have been submitted to the state treasury. Karnataka too has taken steps to release stipends for interns and junior doctors of two colleges — JMM College in Davangere and Kasturba Medical College in Mangalore — between April and June. The colleges, it said, have assured to pay the stipends from July onwards.
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