Staff of Magura Sadar Hospital demonstrate in front of the hospital gate yesterday as they started an indefinite strike demanding payment of 72 months' arrear salary. Inset, the locked door of the civil surgeon's office during the agitation. Photo: STARNotice: Undefined index: pageID in /var/www/archive/newDesign/print_news.php on line 301
Eight doctors and 57 other staff of Magura Sadar Hospital enforced an indefinite strike yesterday to press for payment of 72 months' arrears and placing their job under revenue budget.
They also demanded resignation of the health minister for his alleged failure to start payment of arrear salaries even after six months of the High Court order. Following a writ petition ((9705/2007) filed by the doctors and staff, the High Court on October 25, 2009 ordered the health ministry to pay their arrear salaries.
The agitating doctors and staff locked the civil surgeon's (CS) office and chambers of other doctors in the morning and staged a sit-in-in front of the CS office. They also held a rally on the premises of the out-patient department and vowed to continue their strike until the demands were met.
Patients had to suffer a lotyesterday and most of them were shifted to private clinics and hospitals in the town.
Sharif Shahabur Rahman, one of the agitating doctors, told this correspondent that they were compelled to go on strike as authorities turned a deaf ear to their problems despite the High court order to pay their arrear salaries.
When contacted, Civil Surgeon Humayan Kabir Molla said he urged the higher authorities several times to resolve the problems of the eight doctors and 57 other staff, but to no effect.
Civil surgeon office sources said 76 staffs, including 11 doctors, were appointed in June 1998 under a development project to upgrade the 50-bed Magura Sadar Hospital to a 100-bed one.
After completion of the project in 2000, the staff faced irregularities in receiving their salaries as the finance ministry stopped allocation of fund for this project.
Nine of them, including three doctors, resigned in 2004 as they had to work without salary for several months, while two others died later on, sources said.
