Haryana government doctors threaten mass resignation

CHANDIGARH - Government doctors in Haryana Thursday threatened to offer their mass resignations if no steps were taken to improve the poor working conditions in state hospitals and their low salaries as compared to states.

Representatives of the Haryana Civil Medical Services association, representing government doctors of the state, urged Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to intervene into the matter.

“In Haryana, the basic pay of a medical officer at the entry level is just Rs.17,490 - that of a class II officer. It is equal to the entry level basic pay of a nurse in the state and what an ayurvedic or a veterinary doctor is getting in Punjab,” Kamla Singh, the association’s president, told reporters here.

In Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, the entry level grade is of class I officer with a basic pay of Rs.21,000. This disparity in pay scale is causing frustration among all government doctors in Haryana and they are feeling betrayed at the hands of autocratic bureaucracy in the state, she added.

Besides the low salaries, doctors have to work in very hostile environment without proper machinery and facilities in the state civil hospitals, which is prompting them to switch the job very frequently, she said.

Last year, 800 new doctors were recruited and of them 200 have already resigned and many of the remaining 600 are on leave for a long time, she pointed out.

“We are calling our general body meeting May 30 at Rohtak to decide our further course of action. On that day all the nearly 2,250 doctors of the state will submit their resignation to the president and depending up on the circumstances and the government’s response these will be sent to the authorities concerned,” the association’s general secretary Rajesh Kalia said.