North Delhi doctors protest pending salary, no revised DA

NEW DELHI:  Doctors working in hospitals under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) have once again raised the issue of delay in salary payment; this time by two months. Municipal Corporation Doctor’s Association in a letter written to the Commissioner of the North civic body pending salary as well as failure to revise DA (daily allowance) as per government notification and also non-payment of long-pending arrears.

“It is deeply regrettable that senior service doctors of the corporation have to repeatedly protest for payment of their salaries, which has not been paid to them for the past two months. Though DA has been enhanced twice in 2021 by GOI and revised in SDMC and EDMC but the same has not been revised by the corporation in our pay till date,” read the letter.

The association noted that if the corporation does not respond back within a week about salary, DA and arrears then the doctors will once again call for a total strike. The senior doctors association also wrote that despite working sincerely through tough pandemic times and many a time without salaries, they were deprived from celebrating Diwali due to no salary payments.

“Questionably, even our hard-earned savings in the form of General Provident Fund (GPF) are not available to us for withdrawal even during such adverse times of financial crisis, suggesting unauthorised diversion of our GPF savings for other purposes even though such diversion is not permissible under law. It appears that neither we have any right to live a dignified life nor have any right to die in a dignified manner because of the strange attitude of North Delhi corporation,” the letter stated.

The association also raised question on the Central  government’s response to the Supreme Court last year that it will issue guidelines to make it mandatory for states to pay salaries to healthcare workers, and non-compliance of the directive will be an offence under the Disaster Management Act and the Indian Penal Code and said such orders were merely a paperwork as no such action has been taken by any authority so far.