HYDERABAD: Associate and assistant professors at Gandhi Hospital called off their strike on Thursday after meeting health minister C Laxma Reddy, who assured to bring their demands to the notice of CM K Chandrasekhar Rao. The doctors (who are also part of the teaching faculty) had been on mass casual leave since Wednesday to protest against the cabinet’s decision to raise the retirement age of medical college teachers from 58 to 65 years.
The protesters said that if professors did not retire for seven more years, associates would not get promotions as the professor posts would not become vacant, and assistant professors would not get promoted as associate professors.
Around 50 assistant and associate professors, who are members of Telangana Government Doctors Association (TGDA)-Gandhi Unit, went on mass casual leave and threatened to launch an indefinite hunger strike from June 2.