Government doctors in Tamil Nadu revive pay hike demand

CHENNAI: Government doctors in the State have revived their demand for a pay hike on par with that of Central government doctors. The doctors under Federation of Government Doctors Association (FOGDA) had last year staged a massive protest with several demands including the implementation of Government Order (G.O.) 354, which envisages pay hike.

They withdrew the strike following the intervention of Health Minister C Vijayabaskar and Chief Minister Palaniswami.  Now, they have revived the demand after the government recently entitled all retired chief secretaries and additional chief secretaries of the State government to employ a servant at home by paying a salary of Rs 10,000 per month.

“The IAS Officers Association requested for such allowance for retired IAS officers after the Karnataka government granted it to the officers there. The Tamil Nadu government immediately accepted their demand and issued a G.O. We request the government to do the same with the request of government doctors here. We have been demanding a pay hike on par with that of Central government doctors for the last three years,” said Dr S Perumal Pillai, DME Secretary, Service Doctors and Post Graduates Association.

Pillai added the special payout of a month’s salary to doctors along with others on Covid duty in government hospitals, announced by the CM, had also not been received. Meanwhile, Dr G Ravindranath, General Secretary, Doctors Association for Social Equality said, “Tamil Nadu government doctors are lauded for saving lives and for the best Covid treatment. But they are not being appreciated with fulfilling their long-pending demand.

The government has also not paid Rs 2 lakh for doctors infected with Covid.” The Health Minister had then said the State government doctors could not compare their salary with that of Central government doctors as the latter were not allowed to do private practice. However, the doctors here said that they were ready to stop private practice of their salary was raised.