Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday invoked the Essential Services (Maintenance) Act (ESMA), 1988, prohibiting strikes by doctors and other healthcare personnel for six months, as protesting government doctors intensified their agitation by extending the boycott of outpatient department (OPD) services to two hours daily.
According to an official notification cited by PTI, strikes in the form of cessation of work by doctors, nursing officers, pharmacists, paramedics, technicians, and Class III and IV employees—including contractual staff—engaged in government hospitals and dispensaries have been banned with immediate effect.
OPD Boycott Extended
Government doctors have been boycotting OPD services since December 26, initially for one hour a day. From January 5, the protest was intensified, with OPDs shut from 9 am to 11 am daily. Emergency services, inpatient care, and surgeries have continued uninterrupted.
Demands and Protest Background
The agitation, led by the Odisha Medical Service Association (OMSA), has been ongoing since November over a 10-point charter of demands. These include:
- Pay parity with central government doctors
- Proportional restructuring of cadres across all grades
- Additional financial incentives for super-specialists, specialists, and diploma medical administrators
- Filling up of vacant posts
- Postmortem allowance and performance-based incentives
Before the OPD boycott, doctors had staged protests by wearing black badges.
Government Response
The state government invoked ESMA after OMSA rejected an appeal by Health and Family Welfare Minister Mukesh Mahaling, who had urged doctors to resume duties with an assurance that their demands would be considered sympathetically. An inter-departmental committee has also been constituted to examine the issues raised.
However, OMSA rejected both the appeal and the committee proposal, insisting on a written assurance guaranteeing fulfilment of their demands.
Doctor Shortage Highlighted
OMSA pointed out that Odisha has just over 6,000 government doctors against a sanctioned strength of 15,776, leaving more than 50 per cent of posts vacant.
“This is putting additional pressure on the existing doctors,” the association said, reiterating that systemic shortages and lack of incentives are affecting healthcare delivery across the state.
