The Hindu : Kerala News : Kerala doctors suspend strike for four weeks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 08, 2007
ePaper

Kerala

Kerala

Kerala doctors suspend strike for four weeks

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association has temporarily withdrawn its indefinite strike. In a submission before the Kerala High Court on Friday, representatives of the association said the strike would be suspended for four weeks.

A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice K.M. Joseph, accepted the submission. It asked the Advocate-General to make the Health Minister and the Health Secretary revoke the suspension orders of some doctors on strike.

Considering a public interest litigation filed by Ganapathy from Kollam seeking to declare the strike illegal, the court directed the State government to address the main grievances of the doctors.

Sunny P. Orathel, president of the association, told The Hindu that the government was asked to inform the court about the steps taken to address the grievances by January 5.

Their grievances include lack of specialty and administrative cadres for government doctors.

The doctors went on strike from October 1 protesting against the non- implementation of the recommendations of a special committee that filed a report regarding doctors’ grievances.

The strike, the doctors said, was not causing difficulty to the patients reaching hospitals, as they were only refusing to take up VIP duties or attend special camps such as Sabarimala duties.

Agitation withdrawn

Special Correspondent from Thiruvananthapuram writes:

The government doctors withdrew their two-month-old “work-to-rule” agitation following the High Court directive on Friday morning morning, an official release said here on Friday.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala