Bihar Junior doctors continue strike

Junior doctors of two state-run hospitals on strike for the past nine days today demanded a written assurance from the Bihar government that their stipends would be raised as demanded.

"We have softened our stance, we just want a written assurance from the government on its promise to hike our monthly stipend from Rs 13,000 to Rs 25,000," Patna Medical College Hospital's Junior Doctors Association spokesman Naqi Imam said.
 
Association's president Dheeraj Kumar also spoke in the same vein of the strike by junior doctors at the Patna Medical College and Hospital and the Darbhanga Medical College and Hospital.

"We have inched a step forward towards settlement, but the state government should reciprocate by sending a written assurance," he said.

The doctors also rejected the request of Bihar Human Rights Commission to withdraw the indefinite strike. "We honour and fully respect the SHRC's directive, but we cannot call off our stir at this stage," Imam said.

He said the strikers ran a parallel OPD at PMCH and DMCH campus and provided medicines. It was also decided to take up minor surgery cases, he added.