NEW DELHI: The doctors working for Aam Aadmi Party government-run mohalla clinics in the national capital alleged that their salaries for the past three months are curerntly pending. The doctors from the South-East zone said that their salaries for the months of June, July and August are yet to be given by the government.
“Earlier, there have been times when there were gaps of one month or at most two months of salary payment, but this time it has been stretched to a third month. At the beginning of this year as well, we had a gap of nearly three months and now this is the second time,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.
Another doctor working aat one such Delhi government run clinic said that there are about 50 doctors in the South-East zone who haven’t been paid their due salary.“We have a WhatsApp group and whenever we raise the issue of salary to our Chief District Medical Officer, the answer comes that there is some sort of funding crisis. The paramedical staffers have also not been paid their due. Their salary is lesser than ours and they often struggle to run their families. At times, we had to pay them from our own pockets,” said the doctor.
However, another doctor working in the West Zone said that the salary issue has been resolved in their zone. “It is true that we were not paid at times for two months at a stretch but that has been resolved now. Fund crunch was an issue some months ago. It probably depends upon the CDMOs,” the West Zone doctor added. Multiple calls were made and a message was sent to the Nodal Officer for mohalla clinics, Shalley Kamra, for clarification over the issue, all of which went unanswered.
In the national capital, there are currently about 450 mohalla clinics are operational. The government has also decided to use the clinics as sample collection spots for Covid-19 in order to increase the testing capacity in the city. The samples are being collected from 2 pm to 6 pm while in the first-half normal OPD work is being carried out.
But, West Zone cleared dues of staff
According to a doctor working at a mohalla clinic in the West Zone, staffers of the zone have had their dues cleared. While they too faced some issues, the dcotor said the issue has been resolved