- NET Web Desk
Healthcare facilities along the Tripura Medical College & Hospital (TMCH) were severely affected; following the indefinite strike launched by intern doctors on Monday, demanding a rise over honorarium and waiving of hostel fees.
Addressing the mediapersons, one of the intern doctors – Dr. Saiful Islam, noted that the honorarium was last increased in 2017.
“Despite the rise in commodity costs, the college administration have not considered increasing our allowance,” he stated.
The allowance was increased to Rs 14,500 in 2017. Authorities then, did not decide to deduct the hostel fees from their allowance. However, every month Rs 2,000 is being deducted from our allowance for hostel fees. As a result, the interns are only paid Rs 12,500; he explained.
Saiful further remarked of moving to hospital day and night for delivering medical services across remote areas, for which they never received any travel expenses. As a result, they invest own money to provide medical services along these regions.
Alleging that the college authorities have been asked to increase the allowance several times, he said that the college had undertaken necessary steps to resolve the issue.
“Intern doctors of Agartala Government Medical College are paid Rs 21,000, whereas we receive Rs 14,500 which is a pittance. We are definitely being deprived,” he stated.
The interns claimed that they couldn’t continue to work in the hospital, unless they were paid a reasonable amount.
“After this demonstration, the college administration informed us that our demands would be met. We will not halt our strike, however, until the hospital administration provides us with a formal assurance,” – he continued.
