Government integration demand : GMC Kalamassery doctors on protest

Kochi: The state government seems to be in the eye of a storm if it doesn’t act fast on the demand of the doctors of Government Medical College, Kalamassery to be integrated into the government sector at the earliest. The doctors took out a protest march and stopped marking their attendance to give prominence to their demand.

Despite having been handed over to the government from December 17, 2013, the facilities granted to the college continue to remain basic in nature as compared to other governmental medical institutions of the state.

"When compared to government doctors, we draw only 60 % of the salary that is given to a doctor in the government medical college. Also, there is a huge difference in daily allowance (DA)," Cooperative Medical College Teachers Association, General Secretary, Dr Unnikrishnan G informed Times of India.

The Association had earlier gone on strike in January and had withdrawn the protest when assured by the director of medical education (DME) that a committee would be constituted to look into the issue. "But even after four months, there is no response and therefore as a symbolic measure, we have stopped punching from Monday. We also held a one-hour dharna," he added

On March 17 the Association had queried about the developments in this regard but had drawn a blank from the DME. "We have informed the government that we will stop punching our attendance, not cooperate in conducting medical camps, boycott all clinical and academic activities on May 3 except emergencies and boycott all academic activities from May 7, if a solution is not found by then," Dr Unnikrishnan told the TOI.