Kidwai nurses call off strike as their demands met

 After two days of protest, Kidwai hospital trainee nurses called off their protest on Friday after the hospital authority agreed to their demands.

"They had asked for biometric registration and identification cards. We do not have any issue in providing them," said Dr Krishnamurthy, medical superintendent, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology.

"These nurses are not permanent. So there was no need for ID cards or biometric system for them. But now they are demanding, we will give it to them, Krishnamurthy added.

The salary hike issue would take time as they have to follow government procedure. But we have agreed to request the government about this, he said.

According to the hospital authorities, there are around 130 trainee nurses and 150 permanent nurses.

The trainee nurses are paid Rs 15,000 each per month, and for the past two days, they were staging a protest seeking pay hike.

Dr Krishnamurthy also said that the changes cannot be made overnight as it takes time for the completion of the process.

Tenure extended

The tenure of the director of the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Dr Linge Gowda has been extended to six months.

The state government on Friday, in a written letter, has extended the three-year tenure of Dr Gowda to six more months.

The letter said that the extension of tenure is in the best interest of the institution as well as the public.

"My performance was recognised by the government," said Dr Linge Gowda.

He said that in the last three years he has procured around Rs 130 crore from CSR funds. He added, "The institute is already in the process of utilising a fund of Rs 120 crore under the state cancer institute project."

He said that within the next six months, another 24 crores will be spent on building extensions, Sipani and Daga, to the institute.

He said that the order from the government on the extension of his tenure came as a surprise.

DH News Service