Dimapur, April 20 (EMN): The Nagaland In-Service Doctors’ Association (NIDA) has decided to put its ongoing agitation on hold on April 21, as the government has convened a cabinet meeting to decide on the superannuation age on the said date.
It may be mentioned that NIDA had called for a three-day mass casual leave in protest against the failure of the state government to resolve the superannuation age issue. The three-day agitation concluded on Wednesday but the association had earlier threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the government fails to fulfill its demand.
A statement from NIDA on Wednesday said that almost all NIDA members (both regular and contractual) had ‘voluntarily availed casual leave’.
However, the district health unit heads i.e., all chief medical officers of the districts and medical superintendents of the district hospitals were exempted from the purview of the mass casual leave.
The association had also kept emergency services functional and was manned by doctors despite applying for casual leave.
NIDA said that the admitted patients were being attended to, while in some district hospitals, emergency lifesaving surgeries had also been conducted.
The association first started the agitation in January 2021 by wearing black armbands in protest against non-fulfillment of its demands.
It said that after a series of deliberations with the government, the agitation was kept on hold following a written assurance from the government.
“The association was compelled to take this drastic step as the government failed to fulfill its written assurance of resolving the issue within a ‘period not exceeding one year’ given on April 17, 2021,” it read.