3500 K’taka Doctors Submit En Masse Resignations

3,681 government doctors in Karnataka submitted en masse resignations on Tuesday. The medics, who are up in arms against the `meagre` hike in salaries provided to them, have given the government two weeks time to either rethink its stance on the matter or accept their resignations.

The doctors, however, continue to treat patients at the state run facilities, a public interest move which, they say, they will keep up till the two week deadline gets over on October 14.

Earlier the state chief secretary Sudhakar Rao had urged the medics to refrain from submitting their papers till October 4.

`Since 2005, the government has been giving such assurances. We rejected the chief secretary’s appeal at a meeting with him and 3,681 doctors submitted the resignation to the director of health and family welfare department,` said GA Srinivas, a spokesperson for the doctors.

‘We told the chief secretary that instead of asking us to wait till Oct 4, let the government take decision by then,` Srinivas said.

Rao, who retires as chief secretary on Wednesday called the doctors for a meeting as Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa and his cabinet colleagues are away in Suttur for a three-day brainstorming session.

Demanding a whopper of a hike in entry level wages, the doctors say the scale should be revised from Rs.18,500 to Rs.35,000 per month.

The government has offered a marginal hike but is unlikely to accept the quantum demanded by the medics.