The Haryana Civil Medical Services Association (HCMSA), which represents government doctors in the state, has its office bearers starting an indefinite hunger strike at Swasthya Bhavan in Sector-6 of Panchkula on Wednesday. They claim the State government has broken its promise to meet their demands, which include higher pay and more opportunities for promotion.

Throughout the day, Mr. Khyalia, Virender Kumar, the association's vice president, and Mandeep Saini and Mandeep Kumar, two district presidents, sat outside the Director General Health Services office on a hunger strike.

Doctors in Haryana are requesting four Assured Career Progression (ACP) increments in their fourth, ninth, thirteenth, and twentieth years of service, to be on par with those in the Central government service and in states such as Bihar. Currently, in the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth years of service, they receive three ACP increases. In addition to the reduction of the bond amount for post-graduate courses and the six-fold increase in the monthly conveyance allowance to ₹3,000, they are demanding that the direct appointment of Senior Medical Officers be scrapped in order to create more opportunities for promotion, since the majority of them only receive one promotion in their entire careers.

According to Mr. Khyalia, State Health Department personnel promised to inform the association representatives of the rise in ACP and a reduction in bond amount by July 25. This assurance was made during a meeting on July 18. He added that none of the demands had been fulfilled, but the officials had promised to obtain the required permits for the one-time filling of the SMO posts through promotion and conveyance rise.

On July 15, doctors in the state closed the Outdoor Patients Department for two hours, citing the government's failure to address their long-standing demands.

(Input from various sources)

(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)