MUMBAI: The
state government has finally decided to give the resident doctors in
government hospitals, who have been in the frontline of the Covid-19 battle, their due. On Wednesday, the state cabinet passed the proposal to increase their stipends by Rs 10,000 a month. This will benefit close to 5,000 resident doctors in 18 medical and three dental colleges.
The cabinet, chaired by CM
Uddhav Thackeray, decided to implement the pay hike from the current month, which will burden the state exchequer by Rs 30 crore.
After the revision, junior and senior resident doctors will get paid in the range of Rs 64,551 to Rs 71,247. Their current pay is in the range of Rs 54,000 to 61,000. Postgraduate dental students will also get a monthly hike of Rs 10,000.
A representative from
Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors said that they had been demanding the stipend hike since 2011.
While resident doctors in BMC hospitals have been given Rs 10,000 extra for Covid duty for the last three months, those in state government-run hospitals had not got this benefit.