MMCRI denying salaries, claim junior doctors

The Resident Doctors’ Association of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMCRI) has sought the immediate intervention of the Minister for Health and Medical Education as it said that the MMCRI has not released the salaries and COVID-19 allowances of junior doctors even after their working in the hospitals for two-and-a-half months.

The Association said the MMCRI has denied salaries to the government-appointed junior residents as per the Compulsory Rural Service-2021.

“Despite being worked as frontline workers in COVID-19 wards since June 30, no salaries have been given to us and the college administration argues that no junior residents’ posts existed in the MMCRI although the government order mentions 126 JR posts under the Compulsory Service Act,” said the association in its statement.

In protest against the denial of salaries, the resident doctors staged a demonstration at the MMCRI here on Monday.

As an initiative to implement the compulsory rural service bond taken by the Government of Karnataka, 126 MBBS graduates of the year 2021 who had graduated from various institutes across Karnataka, were posted to MMCRI to work as junior doctors, according to the protesters.

The Directorate of Medical Education has not issued any notification to colleges regarding salaries of junior residents. On approaching the Director of Medical Education through the Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors, the director said the medical colleges have to pay the JRs through the funds available with them and this fact was also confirmed by the financial advisor, they claimed.

“When the Dean and Director of MMCRI told about the payment of salaries in other medical colleges to the JRs, the dean asked us to take transfer to such institutes and said MMCRI cannot pay them,” the statement said.

The Junior Residents of MMCRI said the MMCRI has not given accommodation facilities to them at the institute. “We are still financially dependent on our parents/guardians for food, accommodation, etc., which is not correct after completing the MBBS degree. Also, the ₹40,000 salary fixed for an MBBS doctor who has been working through the pandemic, was scarce. We have also requested the authorities to pay us the promised COVID-19 incentive of ₹10,000 per month,” the protesting doctors said.

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