The staff of the Government Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdulla Mother and Child Hospital (B.R. Shetty Hospital) in Udupi on Monday deferred their plan to launch an indefinite strike on August 11 over non-payment of their salary for the last three months.
They took the decision after Udupi MLA K. Raghupati Bhat met them and assured them of their salary dues being cleared by availing of funds from Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.
The MLA told them that he will try to meet Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai by this month-end to discuss whether the hospital can be managed by the government to avoid any financial problems in paying their salary in future as B.R. Shetty’s firm is in financial trouble.
Sources said that about 180 staff members working in various wings such as administration, nursing, pharmacy and transport, besides doctors, have not been paid their salaries for the last three months. This hospital gets about 350 delivery cases per month and many poor families are dependent on it for mother and child care facilities available there.
