‘Concerns of doctors addressed, arrears will be released this week’
MUMBAI: A day after resident doctors at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (Bmc)-run hospitals took to social media to stage a protest against the pending payment of stipends, Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday assured them that their arrears would be released.
In a tweet, Thackeray said, “We value the services of our health warriors who have kept duty above self. Discussed with @mybmc MC Chahal ji yesterday. Today he has informed me that the concerns of the resident docs have been addressed, the arrears will be released this week. We are all together in this.” On Friday, #Bmcbetrayedus and #Betrayedstillworking trended on Twitter as resident doctors used social media to register their protest against the non-payment of stipends and arrears.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Mumbai chapter of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) said that doctors will shut down Covid services in the next seven days if BMC does not release the dues. From May 2020 to January this year, over 3,000 resident doctors at the four Bmc-run hospitals — KEM, Sion, Nair, and Cooper — were paid ₹10,000 a month. It was then discontinued as Covid-19 cases started to go down. In September, government announced an increase of ₹10,000 in the stipend for resident doctors. When the doctors demanded arrears for the stipend increase, they said, BMC informed them that the arrears were adjusted against ₹10,000 paid to them last year during first Covid-19 wave. Doctors said this was unfair. MARD said arrears for each doctor amount to ₹1.2 lakh.
“On Friday, there was a meeting between the director of BYL Nair hospital and BMC commissioner. On Saturday, our representative had a meeting with the hospital’s director. He has assured proper help and asked to wait till Monday,” said Arun Ghule, president, MARD, Mumbai. Despite repeated attempts, Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, health, and TP Lahane, medical education director, were unavailable for comments.
Ramesh Bhamral, dean and director of BYL Nair Hospital, confirmed that a meeting was held with BMC chief IS Chahal.