Dilli Harijan Hunger Unto Strike Demanding Uniformity of Intern Doctors<\/p>\n
Stipend Uniformity Dispute: Intern Doctors’ Hunger Strike, Commission Says We Are Discussing <\/p>\n
Kathmandu KATHMANDU \u2014 The ‘MBBS and BDS Intern Uniformity Campaign’ has been launched demanding an end to the disparity in stipend between MBBS and BDS intern doctors working in government and private teaching hospitals. Coordinator of the campaign, Dilli Harijan, has been staging a hunger strike at Maitighar Mandala in Kathmandu since Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Harijan said he started his hunger strike at 10:25 am and said he was compelled to take such a drastic step due to the government’s irresponsibility. According to him, although the government teaching hospital provides subsistence allowance equivalent to 50 per cent of that of an eighth level officer in the health service, the private teaching hospital provides only Rs 10,<\/p>\n
000 per month for 24 hours of duty. <\/p>\n
Talking to Nepal News Bank, he said, “I have started a fast-unto-death at Maitighar Mandala from 10:2 <\/p>\n
5 am today. Intern doctors at the government teaching hospitals are getting subsistence allowance equivalent to 50 per cent of that of the eighth level officer of the health service. But in a private teaching hospital, we get only Rs 10,000 per month even if we work for 24 hours. I was forced to sit on a hunger strike as I had requested the government time and again to end this discrimination and ensure equal stipend for equal work. “<\/p>\n
He recalled that the intern doctors have been drawing the attention of the government for a long time demanding equal stipend for equal work. According to him, although the government had formed a task force to study the report and prepared the report, no policy decision has been taken even after 80 days of the report being made public. <\/p>\n
Harijan said that the Medical Education Commission (MEC) has held meetings time and again, but there has been no effective discussion on the demands of the intern doctors.<\/p>\n
He also expressed doubts that the government was delaying the decision due to the influence of private medical colleges. <\/p>\n
“We have been drawing the attention of the government for a long time demanding equal stipend for equal work.<\/p>\n
The government formed a task force and prepared a report, but no policy decision has been taken even after 80 days of the report. The meeting of the Medical Education Commission was held time and again, but there was no serious discussion on our demands. Why is the government hesitant to take a decision? There is also a suspicion that the delay is due to the influence of private medical colleges. According to him, the main demand of the agitation is to take a decision on uniformity of stipend from the Medical Education Commission at the earliest on the basis of the report of the task force formed by the government. The campaign has also demanded that the private teaching hospitals should return the extra fees they have been charging under various headings. <\/p>\n
The <\/p>\n
campaign has also raised the working hours of intern doctors as a major issue. According to Harijan, intern doctors in many teaching hospitals are forced to work for 36 hours continuously, which is not appropriate from the point of view of labour rights. He also urged the government to clearly implement the labour legal provisions for intern doctors as per the Labour Act, 2074. <\/p>\n
“Our main demand is that the Medical Education Commission should take a decision on stipend uniformity at the earliest on the basis of the report of the task force formed by the government,” he said.<\/p>\n
The additional fees charged by private teaching hospitals under various headings should also be refunded. At present, intern doctors are compelled to work continuously for 36 hours in many teaching hospitals, which is against the spirit of the Labour Act, 2074. Therefore, we demand the government to implement legal protections and clear working hours for intern doctors as per the Labour Act. “<\/p>\n
Similarly, the issue of making hostel stay mandatory by private teaching hospitals is another demand of the campaign. They are demanding that hostel stay should be made optional rather than compulsory. <\/p>\n
Harijan made it clear that he would continue his hunger strike until the government decides to implement the report of the task force through the Medical Education Commission.”Our hunger strike will continue until the government takes a decision on the Medical Education Commission,” he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Basanta Prasad Koirala, member-secretary of the Medical Education Commission, said that discussions were underway with stakeholders on the basis of the task force’s report. According to him, the task force has recommended that the proposal should be taken to the commission only after consulting with the stakeholders in the report. <\/p>\n
Koirala said that the task force has submitted its report to the Ministry and the discussion process has started after receiving it through the Ministry to the Commission. Stating that there has been some delay in the decision process due to the situation where the office-bearers are vacant, he said that a round of discussions have already been held and the proposal would be presented in the PSC meeting after holding discussions with the concerned sides including the educational institutions by incorporating their views.<\/p>\n
Talking to Nepal News Bank, he said, “The report of the task force has come. According to the report, the commission will now hold discussions with the stakeholders. For a while, there were no officials. Now the task force has submitted its report to the ministry and it has also come to us. We are in the process of discussions. The task force’s report states that discussions will be held with stakeholders. And that’s what we discussed yesterday in one phase. Now we will discuss it again. Responding to the question of the intern doctors starting a hunger strike <\/p>\n
, he clarified that he had no personal opinion on the issue. <\/p>\n
He said that the Commission will take the issue to the Commission meeting only after concluding discussions with the stakeholders as per the institutional process and then the Commission will take the necessary decision.”I don’t have a personal opinion on this,” he said.<\/p>\n
Now, in terms of institutional perception, I mentioned earlier. Now we will discuss with the stakeholders. And on the basis of that, we go to the Commission with their contents, what are their views, and what the Commission decides about it. That’s how it goes. \u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Dilli Harijan Hunger Unto Strike Demanding Uniformity of Intern Doctors Stipend Uniformity Dispute: Intern Doctors’ Hunger Strike, Commission Says We Are Discussing Kathmandu KATHMANDU \u2014 The ‘MBBS and BDS Intern Uniformity Campaign’ has been launched demanding an end to the disparity in stipend between MBBS and BDS intern doctors working in government and private teachingContinue reading “Stipend uniformity dispute: Intern doctors go on hunger strike, EC says”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":83769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/photo-6_a82d2b3e.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83784"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83785,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83784\/revisions\/83785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/83769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}