AP JUDA serves strike notice

Tirupati/Vijayawada : Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors' Association (AP JUDA) has served strike notice to the director of medical education on Monday stating that they will boycott the duties from June 9 in a phased manner if their demands are not met before that. The general secretary of the association, Dr D Venkata Saiteja, said that they were demanding ex-gratia/health insurance for all frontline workers.

Association president Dr Rahul Roy requested the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to look in the various issues of junior doctors association and resolve their grievances at the earliest.

Also, the JUDA has been seeking Covid incentives for all the junior doctors including postgraduates and interns. They want increased security measures in hospitals to prevent untoward incidents and are looking for TDS issue in stipend pay to be resolved.

However, they thanked the government for the positive response towards some of their requests like senior resident (SR) stipend hike and final year postgraduates for consideration as SR and equivalent stipend pay. Still, he said that their utmost and important and genuine demands were not yet addressed due to which they have no option but to go for boycotting the duties.

While many neighbouring states have been taking initiative to encourage the Covid warriors by providing incentives, ex-gratia to boost their morale, he said that they have been looking for similar steps from the AP government as well. "We are all rendering our services to combat the Covid pandemic since the first wave without any additional benefits at the cost of our lives and precious academic career, which cannot be compensated," he maintained.

In this situation, they have decided to boycott non-Covid electives from June 9, Covid electives from June 10, non-Covid emergencies from June 11 and Covid emergencies from June 12 if their demands are not addressed before that.

Meanwhile, they held a candle light protest on Monday at Ruia hospital in Tirupati which will be followed by another protest by wearing black badges on Tuesday.