Rajasthan: Intern doctors to go on strike over stipend

JAIPUR: Over 1,300 intern doctors on Thursday decided to go on strike from Friday as they have been demanding from the government to increase stipend from Rs7,000 to Rs 14,000.
An office-bearer of All Rajasthan Intern Doctors’ Association said that they have been demanding from the state government to increase their stipend, but it has not resolved the issue. “In October last year a committee formed under the principal and controller SMS Medical College, which had accepted their demands of increasing their monthly stipend. But the decision has not been implemented till date,”said the office-bearer.
A celebration erupted at the Sawai Man Singh Medical College on Monday, where the intern doctors have been protesting for the past five days, sitting on hunger strike. They called off the hunger strike, after a committee formed by the principal and controller SMS Medical College, accepted their demands of increasing their monthly stipend.
In October last year, too, the intern doctors had protested and they had sat on hunger strike on October 15. Following which, a committee was formed by the SMS medical college and intern doctors called off the strike at that time. “The promise which was made with us in October has not been fulfilled. We are getting just more than Rs200 per day as stipend. In no other medical colleges of the country the intern doctors are getting this amount of stipend. Today we met senior officials of health department and medical education department but we got only verbal assurance,” said one of the agitating intern doctor.