Shimla, June 30

Doctors of the Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) and Hospital here today joined the pen-down strike started by the Himachal Medical Officers’ Association (HMOA) against the deduction of non-practising allowance and its delinking from the basic pay in Punjab. The IGMC Resident Doctors Association (RDA) staged a protest for two hours this morning, affecting the OPD service. “It’s a common cause of the doctors and so we have to join the protest,” said IGMC RDA secretary Dr Akshit Puri.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur urged the doctors to exercise restraint. “The government is going through the Punjab notification. We will be able to comment once we figure out what exactly it says,” he said while reacting to the two-hour pen-down strike in all medical facilities of the state.

HMOA secretary Dr Pushpender Verma said they would decide their future course of action depending on what happens in Punjab. “We don’t want to cause inconvenience to patients. The emergency service will continue during the pen-down strike, but the OPD service will be affected,” he said. —TNS