Chennai, March 1 (BPNS)

Tamil Nadu government doctors will stage a token protest fast on Wednesday from 10 am to 5 pm. The protest is for a number of demands that the doctors have been asking the government including proper relief for families of Government doctors who died of Covid 19. The doctors also demand a pay band 4 at 12 years of service. Doctors from across Tamil Nadu will participate in the token agitation.

The doctors said that if the government does not respond to their demands they will intensify the struggle.

It may be recalled that the government doctors of Tamil Nadu had held a dharna on October 20 in Madurai and after assurance from state health minister Ma Subramanian that he will take the issue up with the Chief Minister, they did not intensify their agitation. The doctors again conducted a dharna on January 19 when nothing happened after assurances from the state health minister.

The Legal Coordination Committee of government doctors which is spearheading the agitation said that the state government was doing nothing as far as the pay and other benefits of doctors are concerned. Dr. Perumal Pillai, President of LCC while speaking to BPNS said, “ We are only demanding the government to give decent pay to the lowest-paid government doctors on par with the doctors of the neighbouring states.”

He also said that the previous government had promised in writing that the demands of the doctors would be met but nothing had happened.

The doctors also said that the wife of Doctor Vivekanandan who passed away due to Covid -19 related illness has not been given a government job on compassionate grounds till now. The LCC had met the state health minister and other officials along with the family of the deceased doctor but nothing happened.

The doctors are on a warpath after the successive governments ignored the cause put forward by the government doctors, the LCC leader, Dr. S. Perumal Pillai said.