Govt docs in Kerala to launch standing agitation against allowance cut

Thiruvananthapuram: The government doctors in Kerala will launch a relay standing agitation in front of the Secretariat here, as a mark of protest against the anomalies in the recent pay revision, which has allegedly cut down their allowances and some benefits.

Despite their relentless fight against the COVID-19 for the last several months, the grievances of the doctor community were ignored by the government and their deserved allowances were cut, the Kerala Government Medical Officers' Association (KGMOA) said here on Saturday.

As the state health sector has been facing acute shortage of human resource, the medicos have to face several challenges from mental pressure to overtime duty schedules to contribute their best in the COVID and post-COVID treatment, it noted.

Not only were the doctors and health workers denied the risk allowance, but also there was no proportionate increase when the pay revision came and many of their allowances were withdrawn, KGMO president Dr G S Vijayakrishnan alleged.

Though the doctors had staged several token agitations earlier, the government ignored all such strikes and the standing agitation was part of plans to intensify their protests, he said.

KGMO former president S Prameela Devi would inaugurate the agitation in front of the Secretariat on November 1.

Hundreds of doctors from the family health centres to district health centres across the state would be part of the protest, he said adding that the medicos would go on mass casual leave on November 16 if the authorities ignored this stir also.