Bombay HC asks state what steps it has taken to prevent doctor strikes

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Monday asked the state government to inform what steps it had taken to solve the problems of doctors and to prevent recurrence of frequent strikes in government-run hospitals. Doctors, who organize these strikes, have always claimed that the Maharashtra government has not met their demands of better remuneration and infrastructure.
Over 4,000 resident doctors had gone on an indefinite strike from July 2 alleging the state government’s indifference to their demands of better pay, security and work hours. The strike was, however, called off on July 3 after talks between the doctors and government.
The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) had presented the state with a charter of 10 demands and discussed the issue earlier this week with government officials. But a city advocate, Datta Mane, had moved the HC last week.
A division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice A K Menon, hearing Mane’s PIL, asked the Maharashtra government what it planned to do now to prevent such strikes.
The government informed the high court that the strike has been called off and hence the PIL can be disposed of.
The bench was, however, not satisfied and observed that time and again doctors are going on strike, which in turn, causes problems for patients.
“Tell us what mechanism have you (government) evolved to avoid such strikes? In the past also, we had directed the government to come up with a redressal mechanism,” the court noted.
Mane sought a directive to the government to invoke provisions of the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) against doctors if the strike was not called off.