Glitch leaves Vellore docs without pay for 3 months

The issue came to light when trainee doctors staged a protest demanding payment of stipend dues pending for three months. With Deepavali around the corner, trainee doctors threatened to go on a prolonged agitation from Friday.

The 93 trainee medicos joined duty on March 30, 2018, for a monthly.

stipend of Rs 14,600. The stipend was increased to Rs 20,000 with effect from April 2018, resulting in arrears pending for July, August and September. The total amount to be paid for each trainee medicos should be Rs 36,200. But, the issue became serious when stipends were withheld for three months and repeated entreaties failed to have any effect.

When the hospital officials were questioned about this, they said, “Trainee doctors failed to understand despite matters being explained in detail. The delay starts when trainee medicos fail to provide ‘no dues certificates’ on time. Further, when bills are sent to the Vellore treasury, the latter are unable to upload them at one shot, as the server was down.”

Sources further added that, “The server’s inability to handle the loads has also affected senior doctors in the Vellore unit. They are self-drawing officers, here also, due to lack of timely submission of bills is a reason, why some doctors get salaries three months late.”

However, trainee doctors are unhappy as they have been paid only a part of the total pending amount. “We do not know when we will get the remainder,” said a trainee medico. “Things were better off when work was done manually, because we would be sure of getting our salaries on time,” said doctors.