West Bengal hikes salary of junior doctors, interns amid COVID-19 time

Kolkata: The West Bengal government on Monday announced a hike in the salary and stipend of junior doctors, house staff and interns of state-run hospitals to boost their morale during the crisis of coronavirus outbreak.

Minister of State for Health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, said though the state government is going through a severe financial crunch, it decided to hike the salaries as a "token of recognition and appreciation of the selfless work done by the doctors".

The hike will be effective from January 1 this year.

The interns will now get a monthly stipend of Rs 28,050, a hike of Rs 4,425, while a house staff will get Rs 5,367 more to receive a remuneration of Rs 43,758 a month, Bhattacharya said.

Accordingly, post-graduate trainees in the first, second, and third years will now get monthly remunerations of Rs 43,758, Rs 47,124, and Rs 50,490 respectively.

The minister said the increased stipend of first-year post-doctoral trainees will be Rs 53,856 a month, while that of the second-year and third-year trainees will be Rs 57,222 and Rs 60,588.