Enhance pay of TN govt doctors on par with AIIMS medicos: O Panneerselvam

CHENNAI: Former Chief Minister and expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam on Tuesday appealed to the State government to comply with the direction issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to enhance the pay for the government doctors in the State on par with medics of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS).

The NMC has issued a direction to fix the pay anomaly across the country on par with the doctors of AIIMS-Delhi. However, the DMK government is not following it, said Panneerselvam in a statement on Tuesday.

In 2009, the then-DMK government passed a Government Order (GO) on the pay and promotion of government doctors. In 2019, doctors resorted to an indefinite strike demanding the implementation of GO. The then opposition leader and the present Chief Minister, M K Stalin, called on the protesting doctors and assured them that he would implement the GO once DMK returned to power, Panneerselvam said. “It’s been three years since the DMK formed the government, but the promise remains unfulfilled”, said Panneerselvam.

The government doctors approached the judiciary regarding the issue in 2020. The court, in turn, directed the Tamil Nadu government to address the issue within six weeks. However, the DMK government had come up with yet another government order (GO 293) to nullify the previous GO 354, Panneerselvam said.