Doctors at Kasturba hospital threaten strike from Feb 1 over unpaid salaries

A formal announcement about the strike is likely to be made by the doctors’ association after a meeting on January 27.

Doctors of Kasturba Hospital, run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, are likely to go on an indefinite strike from February 1 over non-payment of salaries for the past three months.

Resident doctors hold placards during a protest against the nonpayment of their salaries at Kasturba Hospital in Daryaganj, New Delhi in October 2020. ( Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times File Photo)

A formal announcement about the strike is likely to be made by the doctors’ association after a meeting on January 27. Doctors of Hindu Rao and other hospitals under the north corporation are yet to decide on whether to strike work, but they will write to the civic authorities urging them to make pending payments.

Nurses and paramedics of Kasturba Hospital, Hindu Rao Hospital and Rajan Babu TB hospital are already on strike since January 7 along with employees of other departments of north corporation over non-payment of salaries.

Dr Sunil Kumar, president of the Kasturba Hospital Resident Doctors’ Association, said salaries for the months of November, December and January are the pending and doctors are currently working without payment.

“Our salaries are pending for three months and we are giving our services without payment. We also have our families to feed and non-payment of salaries has now become a norm in the north civic body. This has to end. We are waiting till January 26 (Tuesday) for our salaries to be paid. We are likely to go on an indefinite strike from February 1, if our salaries are not released. On January 27 (Wednesday) we will have a meeting to decide our strategy,” Kumar said.

Another doctor of the hospital, who wished not to be named, said, “ We have come to know that our salaries are unlikely to be paid till March as the civic body is focusing on the release of salaries of employees of other departments, who are already on an indefinite strike. We have no choice left but to go on a strike. The authorities should find a permanent solution to this problem.”

Responding to the doctors’ statements, north corporation mayor Jai Prakash said, “We are arranging funds to pay salaries of employees, which also include doctors. They (doctors) are responsible people, so they should maintain decorum and not go on strike as that is not the solution. We had paid them before we did other employees in October. They should also show us some cooperation.”

According to civic officials, the north corporation employs around 1,000 senior doctors, 500 resident doctors, and 1,500 nursing officers across its five hospitals.

The 450-bed Kasturba Hospital is a maternity and child specialty hospital located near the Jama Masjid while Hindu Rao Hospital is the municipality’s largest hospital with 980 beds.

This is not the first time that doctors have threatened to go on a strike. In June, doctors of Kasturba Hospital and Hindu Rao Hospital had threatened to tender mass resignations over non-payment of two months’ salary but they go ahead with the threat as the Supreme Court asked the civic body to pay pending salaries.

Again, on October 5, resident doctors at Hindu Rao Hospital went on a strike after their salaries remained unpaid for four months. On October 14, doctors of Kasturba Hospital also went on a strike. These strikes were called off on October 29 after the corporation released two months’ salary and assured doctors that salaries will be paid regularly from then on.

“But that promise was not kept by the civic body. Our salaries for three months are now pending. We have not yet decided on the strike but we are going to write to the mayor and commissioner of the north corporation about our ordeal,” Abhimanyu Sardana, president Resident Doctors’ Association Hindu Rao Hospital, said.

Sardana said a meeting of the association will be convened towards the end of the month to decide the future course of action.