Junior doctors’ overflowing cup of woes

HYDERABAD: Not even a single junior doctor across the State receives his or her stipend on time, as the government does not have a mechanism to do it automatically. On top of this, other issues such as income tax deductions are only reducing their net amount receivable.

With a written assurance from Osmania Medical College (OMC) authorities that they would clear the pending stipend arrears within three days, post-graduate junior doctors postponed their strike after it began on Monday morning.

The Junior Doctors Association (JUDA) at Osmania had called this protest as they had not received the stipends since February. After repeated requests, the students received just two months of stipend from the principal after which they decided to boycott non-emergency services in Osmania General Hospital.
“Even though, only students of OMC organised a protest, none of the junior doctors across the State are getting the stipend on time,” said Dr Karthik Nagula, president of Telangana JUDA. The complex procedure involved in releasing stipend takes at least one-and-a-half months time, he added.

Tax burden
Moreover, junior doctors have represented to the government several times to exempt them from paying 10 per cent tax deducted from their salaries but there has been no response from the government. Despite the government’s order to increase the stipend by 15 per cent every two years, the government has delayed the procedure due to the pandemic last year. “The State increased the stipend last year and then started deducting 10 per cent tax from April this year,” Dr Karthik added.

As the number of postgraduates is increasing every year, hostels are becoming insufficient. With the rising number of patients, junior doctors are working overtime every day to manage the doctor-patient ratio.