Budgam, May 30: Patient care in Budgam hospitals on Wednesday came to a grinding halt as the doctors’ here called for a 2-hour pen down strike to press for their demands.
Out-patient departments (OPDs) across the district remained closed from 10 am to 12 pm causing immense hardships to the patients.
The strike was observed in all sub district hospitals and primary health centres of district Budgam as a huge rush of patients was seen waiting outside these health institutions.
The call for strike was given by Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK).
Raising slogans “We want justice”, doctors assembled in the laws of Budgam district hospital and held a protest against the government.
District president Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) told ‘Kashmir Images’: “Our Association has approached government several times, but our genuine demands are not being fulfilled.”
About the demands of protesting doctors’, he said that unlike other departments, doctors work for 50-60 hours a week without any holiday but their salary is not hiked.
When asked doctors in Canada are protesting against pay rise, while in Kashmir they are demanding more salaries, he said, “We can’t compare Canada with Kashmir. We work for 50-60 hours a week here.”
Another doctor said, “Government must rectify pay anomaly and give us risk and rural allowances,” adding that medical officers must be given promotion like employees in other departments.
Medicos asked the government to accept their demands before Eid. “If our demands are not met before Eid, we will observe a one day strike on June 20 and after June 25 we will go for indefinite strike,” they said.
Meanwhile, emergency services ran smoothly in Budgam health institutions as the same were exempted from the strike.
