THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The All-Kerala Dental Residents Association (AKDRA) will join the ‘mass blood donation’ protest on Tuesday, to be organised by the Kerala Medical Post Graduates Association (KMPGA) against the refusal to hike their stipend. As many as 2,000 students from the medical and dental colleges will donate blood as part of the protest.
The PG medicos said that they were bound to resort to such an agitation after the government failed to keep its promise of looking into the issue many times. Ahead of the ‘blood donation’ protest, the PG medicos had last week agitated by working for 24 hours.
AKDRA president Dr Prasanth S P and general secretary Dr Anand S said that the previous stipend hike was in 2012 and the health minister had promised to increase it yearly.
They also said that the residents of various dental colleges in the state were working more hours than stipulated by the Dental Council of India.
The medicos said that it was only in Kerala that the PG medicos were getting the lowest remuneration. In the past one month, several states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka had hiked the remuneration up to 40 to 60 per cent, they said.