Andhra junior doctors to continue strike as talks with govt. make no headway

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Junior doctors staging a demonstration in front of Government Siddhartha Medical College in Vijayawada on Thursday. | Photo Credit: G.N. RAO

For the first time since their strike began, a delegation of junior doctors met Andhra Pradesh Minister for Health, Medical and Family Welfare Satya Kumar Yadav at the Secretariat on Thursday, August 20, and discussed their concerns. However, A.P. Junior Doctors’ Association said there was no headway in the matter, adding that the strike would continue.

According to a press release from the Health Department, the Minister told the doctors that the government was not in a position to continue the implementation of the 15% biennial stipend hike.

But, the Minister said the doctors need not be concerned about their other two demands, including adherence to National Medical Commission (NMC) regulations regarding the recruitment of MSc-and PhD-qualified candidates, and opposition to the proposed increase in the retirement age to 65 years.

“There was no positive outcome from the meeting. The strike will continue. However, we have been assured of another round of talks soon,” A.P. Junior Doctors’ Association (APJUDA) treasurer D. Ranjeet said after the meeting.

In a late-night release on Wednesday, the association said the 3% and 5% annual stipend hikes proposed by the government for junior doctors and interns were inadequate and unjustifiable. However, they also announced that they scaled down its demand from a 30% biennial revision to 20%.

The association was responding to a press release issued by the Department of Health, Medical and Family Welfare, in which Health Secretary G. Veerapandian said the government could not concede the protesting junior doctors’ demand owing to the State’s financial situation and proposed a 3% annual stipend hike.

The doctors said the amount was ‘too inadequate to compensate for the prevailing rate of inflation’. In their statement, junior doctors, senior residents and interns said a 15% increase in stipends would result in an additional annual expenditure of ₹87.91 crore.

“This amount constitutes approximately 0.5% of the total Budget allocated to the health department in the Budget Estimates for 2026-27, and approximately 0.03% of the total State Budget for 2026-27,” they wrote.

In its release, the Health Department had said that increasing the stipend was not possible because Assistant Professors themselves received less. To that, the junior doctors said the Assistant Professors had not received the benefit of one Pay Revision Commission (PRC), which would otherwise have resulted in a further increase in their salaries.

On Wednesday night, candlelight rallies were held at many government hospitals, opposing the government’s offer. Rallies and demonstrations continued on Thursday, the tenth day of the strike and the fourth since emergency services were withdrawn.

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