Government doctors expressed shock and disappointment that the Health Minister failed to mention the implementation of an order issued by the earlier DMK regime.
The G.O. 354 was not mentioned during the Health budget discussion, said the Legal Coordination Committee for Government Doctors (LCC), which is about implementing the pay band 4 in 12 years. The Minister had been making assurances time and again that he would bring the issue of salary hike to the notice of the Chief Minister but had not done so, the doctors rued. Several protests by the doctors had led the Madras High Court to order the government to fulfil the salary demand within six weeks, they pointed out.
The LCC pointed out that in the States of Karnataka, Maharashtra and even Bihar, which ranks 25th in the health sector, the doctors are paid on a par with the Central government medical professionals. S. Perumal Pillai, president of the committee, demanded that the Minister explain his stand, especially when the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, as the then Opposition leader, had supported the salary hike for doctors.
He pointed out that 19,000 doctors stood with the government during the COVID-19 pandemic and as a token of appreciation on Doctor’s Day, the government should implement G.O. 354. He also wanted the government to provide a government job for Divya, wife of Vivekanandan, a government doctor, who died in harness during the COVID-19 pandemic.
