Shimla, Oct 28 (PTI) The State Association of Medical and Dental College Teachers (SAMDCOT) on Wednesday warned of a three-day pen-down strike over what it claims is the Himachal government’s apathy, discriminatory service conditions, and unaddressed genuine grievances of faculty members across government medical and dental colleges.
The association said the pen-down strike will begin on November 2. If the government does not address its concerns by November 4, its members will launch a mass casual leave and a march to the Himachal Secretariat on November 5.
The decision was taken during an emergency general body meeting of SAMDCOT, where they expressed strong resentment against the “ongoing administrative apathy” over their grievances,
The doctors are demanding dedicated fresh recruitment in AIMSS-Chamiana, re-evaluation of recent redeployment and transfer orders, constitution of a formal review committee to evaluate infrastructure, workload, and human resource needs.
They also sought the establishment of formal clinical protocols, transparent duty rosters, dedicated transport, and integrated diagnostics for smooth inter-facility patient handovers.
The members also resolved to launch a phased agitation against a series of regressive, arbitrary, and discriminatory orders issued by the Congress-led government concerning medical faculty, a statement issued here said.
As per the action plan, faculty members across all departments will observe a daily pen-down strike from 9:30 am to 11 am for three consecutive days from November 2 to 4 to register initial protest.
However, emergency services, trauma care, and ICUs will remain operational so that critical patient care is not jeopardised, it said.
In case the state government fails to initiate constructive dialogue or concede to the association’s legitimate demands by November 4, all faculty members under SAMDCOT will go on mass casual leave on November 5 and will stage a joint march to the Himachal Pradesh State Secretariat in Shimla to demonstrate collective solidarity and demand immediate revocation of the contentious orders.
It said that a formal notice regarding the agitation has been submitted to the authorities, including the Principal of Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC), Shimla, for immediate transmission to the Department of Medical Education and the state government.
Dr Balbir S Verma, the president of the association, and Piyush Kapila, general secretary, said that while doctors regret any inconvenience caused to outdoor patients during the one and half hour pen-down demonstrations, the persistent indifference of the administration has left medical college teachers with no alternative other than democratic agitation to safeguard institutional dignity and faculty rights.
Earlier, in a statement issued on October 15, the SAMDCOT said the repeated transferring of experienced teaching faculty and clinicians from IGMC Shimla to AIMSS Chamiana merely shifts existing shortages from one campus to another.
Moreover, faculty allocations at IGMC Shimla are structured strictly according to the statutory norms of the National Medical Commission (NMC), it said.
Arbitrary transfers and deputations risk falling below mandatory minimum faculty thresholds, which jeopardises the recognition of undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats as the same faculty acts as guide or co-guides for the postgraduate students at IGMC Shimla, compromising clinical residency training programmes, and damages the academic credentials built over several decades, it added.
Furthermore, the lack of well-defined referral pathways forces critically ill, elderly, and rural patients to shuttle between two geographically separated campuses (IGMC Lakkar Bazaar and Chamiana), leading to critical delays, physical hardship, and increased out-of-pocket expenses, the SAMDCOT said. PTI BPL KSI
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