The State government has to increase the stipend of junior doctors by 15% once every two years, and because it is overdue for more than seven months, the junior doctors have spilled on to the streets, says D. Jayadheer Babu, A.P. Government Doctors’ Association (APGDA) State president.

Announcing the APGDA’s support for the A.P. Junior Doctors’ Association’s (APJUDA) demands, Dr. Jayadheer Babu said the government was trying to project the protesting doctors in a bad light. Moreover, the Health Department had insulted the whole medical fraternity by proposing an annual hike of 3%, he said, while participating in a protest in Visakhapatnam.

“The junior doctors’ demands for rising the biannual stipend hike from 15% to 30% is genuine and valid. They have been waiting since January this year for the hike. Instead of timely increments, the State government is instead offering a token increase of 3% annually. How is this justified?” he asked, demanding Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s response and Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav’s decision on the matter.

Junior doctors said in 2024, too, they had to stage protests for implementation of the hike. “Inflation is rising, rents are increasing and so is the workload. The inflation rate in A.P. is higher than that of the country,” said Ranjeet Dhabable, APJUDA treasurer. He also added that whenever they were on night shifts, they had to work continuously for 36 hours.

In response to the Health Department’s claim that they did not receive any official representation from APJUDA until July 17, Dr. Ranjeet Dhabale said they made multiple representations and all of them were available in the public domain.

On Wednesday, the third day of their strike, non-emergency services were withdrawn completely in the government teaching hospitals as interns, junior residents, super-speciality post-graduates, senior residents participated in the strike. Some of them also held relay hunger strike between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.