AHMEDABAD: After rounds of talks with the state government over their pending demands, in-service doctors of government-run medical colleges and Gujarat Medical & Education Research Society (GMERS) colleges have now set January 16 as their deadline, after which they will go on strike.
The Gujarat Government Doctors Forum (GGDF), which has doctors from six government-run and eight GMERS colleges as members, had earlier threatened to go an indefinite strike from December 13. They later decided to postponed their stir after a promise from the state government that their demands would be looked into.
The protesting doctors had given the government till December 26, but now have decided to revisit the deadline and wait till January 16 for their demands to be met.
“The government has looked into many of our demands, however, discussions are on about a few of our demands and we are hopeful that the government will consider them before the Vibrant Gujarat summit next month,” said a member of GGDF.
GGDF has been protesting the reduction in salaries and pressing other pending demands.
Over the past few months, professors have been facing salary cuts in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs 96,000 per month. The government gave a dearness allowance for about five months but decided to withdraw it, and recovered the money paid from the salaries of professors. The demands included higher non-practising allowance in line with the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations. Another demand is related to the abolition of contract appointments.
As medical college teachers are barred from private practice, an allowance is paid to them as compensation. Gujarat Medical Teachers’ Association (GMTA) had earlier this year demanded that medical college teachers be allowed to start private practice after 10 years of regular service. Citing a government resolution of 2017, GMTA sought an increase in the cap on the monthly salary.
