MARD to protest against non-receipt of salary

Mumbai: The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) is protesting as around 1,000 resident doctors from various medical colleges in the state have not received their salary for the past two months. The Mumbai-based MARD has planned to come out in support of these resident doctors by selling fruits in the Sion Hospital campus around 10am on Tuesday.

Resident doctors from Aurangabad’s Gover-nment Medical College have already started selling fruits on the streets to protest pending payment of their stipend. Resident doctors from these government-run medical colleges have not been paid their stipend since the past 50 days.

 Dr Abdul Vakil Khan, MARD president, Aura-ngabad, said, “The doctors are scapegoats for the patients’ kin’s anger. But we are still working as we did not want the health of the poor patients to be affected.”

“We have started our protest Monday. All resident doctors are wearing a black ribbon as a token of protest. We are penniless since we are far away from our houses; we eat outside and depend on dry fruits for our health,” he said.

Dr Pravin Shingare, director, state Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), said, “I have to probe the issue. We won’t keep it pending.”