AIIMS doctors seeking wage hike threaten stir

New Delhi: Over 1,700 AIIMS doctors have threatened to protest if the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) are not implemented in the premier medical institute by Tuesday next week. 

The resident doctors have sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to get full implementation of the CPC. They have alleged that even after one-and-a-half years of 7th CPC and four months of allowance approval in other medical institutes, Delhi-AIIMS doctors still don’t get the revised pay because of “administrative lapses”.

They said that several other Central health institutions, including the Centre-run Delhi’s Safdarjung and RML hospitals, PGI Chandigarh and JIPMER Puducherry, have implemented the recommendations of 7th CPC but AIIMS-Delhi, “despite being the country’s premier medical institute, is yet to implement it”. They blamed the “bureaucratic hurdles” and the health ministry for its delay.

Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, RDA president, Delhi-AIIMS, said that basic pay scale of some of the doctors has been revised but allowances such as HRA and NPA have not been revised, which are the main part of the total salary. He also said that when doctors approach the hospital administration, they are told that the health ministry is not giving approval and when they visit the health ministry they are told that it will take a long time.

“If our demands are not met by the given deadline, we will hold peaceful protest that will last for three hours,” said Dr Bhatti.