2,400 state medical teachers threaten strike
Around 2,400 teachers from the Maharashtra State Medical Teachers Association (MSMTA) have threatened to boycott the upcoming MBBS and BDS exam of the University all over Maharashtra, if their pending demands, including non-practising allowance (NPA) as per the Sixth Pay Commission, time bound promotions and financial and service benefits,are not met.
According to MSMTA, the state government has a month’s time to accept their demands, failing which the medical teachers will neither supervise nor correct the MBBS/BDS exam papers.
“The rules and regulations have been in existence for a long time now,but only on paper. The implementation is lacking and we want the government to execute these regulations,” said Dr N.N. Ramraje,president, MSMTA. In December 2011, the MSMTA had gone on a month-long protest for the same.
As per a government resolution (GR) issued on March 27, 2008, the NPA given to medical teachers working in the state medical colleges in urban and rural areas was increased from 25 per cent to 35 per cent and 50 per cent respectively.
However, teachers still continue to get an NPA of just 25 per cent, despite a 10 per cent raise, doctors claimed. “After this GR, the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented in Maharashtra. But medical teachers from four medical colleges namely BJ Medical College in Pune, Grant Medical College in Mumbai, Government Medical College in Nagpur and Aurangabad are still getting 25 per cent NPA on the basis of the fifth pay scale,” said Dr Shivaji Sukre, executive president, adding, “Now, we have heard that the state government is planning to reduce the NPA from 35 to 25 per cent again.”
When contacted Dr Arun Jamkar, vice-chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Science said, “It is unfortunate that the teachers are holding the students to ransom even after the compensation for examination duty has been increased by 150 per cent. However, if they persist on their demands and boycott examination duty, we have other alternatives. We will arrange for teachers from other cities to do examination work.”
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