Hungry! Work full & Take Home Peanuts

If you happened to have watched a chase scene in 1998 romantic-comedy film Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Om Puri (Inspector Khan) hands over a few chickpea (chana) to his constable to eat while chasing the elusive Shekhar in their police jeep.

This after the constable-driver pleads he cannot drive any longer and wants to stop the jeep to eat but Om Puri just just asks him to munch a few Chana to drive away his hunger.

The bewildered look on the face of the constable tells all as he starts driving faster, saying his hunger has been satiated.

Well, come back to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) or any of the dozen state run medical college cum hospitals in Telangana as hundreds of medicos share the plight of that constable.

This is why when newly appointed Telangana director of medical education Dr K Ramesh Reddy was felicitated at a public event in Koti on Tuesday, Telangana Junior Doctors' Association (TJUDA) came along with not just a garland but a memorandum as well.

Here are their main demands:

• We, the Junior Doctors' Association of Telangana, took an active part in statehood agitation and its formation.
• We request you to revise the monthly stipend as it is less compared to what is being paid to junior doctors in other states.
• We also want to bring to your notice that we are paid stipends once in 3 to 5 months and it is becoming difficult for us to fulfill our basic needs like purchasing costly books.
• The services that we are rendering to both out patient and in patients are far high compared to what medicos in other states. However, when it comes to stipends, we are paid less. 

What other states are paying:

• In Delhi, MD/MS get 60,000 - 78,000 INR per month. It begins at 60k for first year residents and goes up to around 78k. For DM/MCh, they get around 90,000 INR per month.
• In Uttar Pradesh, postgraduate students get between Rs 48,000 and Rs 52,000 stipend. 
• In Ranchi, the stipend meant for postgraduate students range between Rs 46,000 to Rs 48,000.
•  In Maharashtra, stipend range between Rs 49,217 for a junior resident doctor to Rs 54,115 for a senior resident doctor.
• In NIMS HYDERABAD, they get around 65000 INR per month 

Will the Telangana government continue to play Om Puri's character in  Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha?