Despite ESMA, Gujarat doctors decline to call off their strike

Despite ESMA, Gujarat doctors decline to call off their strike Even though the Gujarat government invoked provisions of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the resident doctors of government hospital across the state, they are not ready to call off their agitation.

The state government on Sunday invoked ESMA against the doctors, who have been boycotting duty from the last five days, demanding a rise in their monthly stipend.

Earlier this year, the state government had promised the medicos that their stipend would be hiked within two months.

Commenting over the strike, a member of Gujarat Association of Resident Doctors (GARD) said: "ESMA will not deter us and we will carry on our stir till our demands are met. We will fight the government tooth and nail."

Meanwhile, Amarjeet Singh, State Health Commissioner said that the strike was not going to impact health and medical services in Gujarat because all interns had resumed work in the Jamnagar, Rajkot, Baroda and Surat hospitals.

"In Ahmedabad also, nearly 65 interns have resumed work and we hope that resident doctors will also be back to work soon," said Singh.

State health minister Jaynarayan Vyas also added that suitable arrangements had been made by the administration to take care of patients in government and municipal corporation hospitals.