Imphal, November 10 2009: Service at the largest government-run hospital of Manipur, JN Hospital has gone haywire today as doctors of the hospital have ceased work and taken mass casual leave to put pressure on the state government to fulfill their demand of equal pay with the doctors of JN Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) .

With talks between the protesting doctors' representatives and JNIMS authority led by Chief Minister having failed to arrive at any kind of agreement this evening, the strike will continue further.

Doctors of the JN Hospital have taken umbrage as some of their colleagues have been absorbed in the staff of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) getting higher pay.

They described the act as humiliation towards them by the authority.

They are demanding equal pay.

With no doctor of JN Hospital turning up to attend duty, their duties were taken over by doctors of JNIMS in some sections of the hospital.

But no doctor was seen attending patients in other sections.

Owing to the developing situation, some patients with serious cases left the hospital for treatment at other private hospitals, said a source of the hospital when contacted.

The source, however, said some normal patients are still in the wards.

Emergency service has also been disturbed by the strike of the doctors, he added.

As the doctors did not receive any response from the government, they decided to take mass casual leave from today.

The doctors had served notice to the authority earlier to fulfill their demands.

If no positive response comes, doctors will tender their resignations to the authority en-masse, he said reiterating the series of protest the body announced earlier.

"Unable to further bury and bear the humiliations meted out to the doctors of the hospital during the process of upgradation to a medical college, we decided to resort series of protest, said Dr L Kokindra Singh, secretary of the JNH Employees Welfare Association under which the protest started launching.

Doctors applied for mass casual leave for four days from today to November 13 .

The doctors' body has decided to launch the series of protests as they could not get positive response to the representation of the working committee of the doctors of JN Hospital Employees Welfare Association submitted to the chief minister who is also the president of the JNIMS Society.

"Having compelled, the body decides to go ahead with the proposed series of protests," Dr Kokindra said.

Manipur government, in a move to meet the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines necessary for a medical college, issued an order on May 2 of this year placed the JNH and its staffs under the controlling authority of the director of JNIMS.

The list of staffs submitted to a team of MCI recently inspected incorporated all the doctors of the JNH to show enough doctors will be available for the college.

These facts evidently substantiate that JNH doctors are very much employees of JNIMS, doctors demanded.

However, JNIMS doctors were drawing higher pay than their similar grade counterparts of JNH.

"This treatment was somehow tolerated," he said.

The order of the government hiking the pay of the JNIMS doctors is as good as entitlement of 6th pay commission.

The order was a disparity of pay between two classes of doctors working in the same environment discharging similar service to the same kind of patient under same roof of the hospital and under the same administrative and disciplinary control of the Director JNIMS.

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