CM KCR urges the junior doctors to call off their strike

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday urged the junior doctors to call off their strike and join duty immediately considering the serious situation on account of Covid-19 pandemic and other public health issues.

The Chief Minister advised them against abandoning duties during such crucial times and said the government had never shown any discrimination against them. The State government has always addressed their issues from time-to-time and was ready to resolve their legitimate demands, he said.

With the junior doctors launching a strike and threatening to boycott emergency services, Health officials brought their issues to the notice of the Chief Minister at Pragathi Bhavan here. They informed him that many other States were paying lower stipends to junior doctors than Telangana State.

Responding to their issues, the Chief Minister said the State government does not have any objection to resolve the legitimate demands of junior doctors. The grievances can be brought to the notice of the government for redressal. “But boycotting duties in the name of strike during the pandemic is a very



improper way to resolve the issues. People will not like such acts during such emergency conditions like Corona,” he cautioned.

Chandrashekhar Rao responded swiftly on certain demands brought to his notice by the Health officials and asked the latter to resolve them immediately. Besides enhancing the honorarium provided to senior residents by 15 per cent, he also decided to provide honorarium to medicos who have completed three years of their education and are currently serving Covid-19 patients on par with the senior residents.

He suggested better medical provisions to the junior doctors and their family members at NIMS considering the services of junior doctors during the pandemic. He also directed the officials to immediately release the ex gratia amount as per the government rules to junior doctors who died of Covid-19.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, CM Secretary and Covid-19 Special Officer Rajashekhar Reddy, Health Secretary SAM Rizvi, Director of Health G Srinivas Rao, Director of Medical education Ramesh Reddy, CM OSD Gangadhar and other officials were present.