Ludhiana, July 24
The fortnight long crisis in the Dr BL Kapoor Memorial Hospital ended here today after the management and the striking employees reached an agreement. The employees, mostly the doctors and nurses, who have not been paid salaries for so many months, will get the same within 15 days. Moreover, the staff will also get a hike of 30 per cent on their salaries. President of the BL Kapoor Hospital Employees Union, Mr Surjit Singh, also confirmed that the employees had withdrawn their strike and resumed the work following the agreement.
Giving details of the agreement, Mr G.S. Chopra, member of the executive committee of the BL Kapoor Memorial Trust said the management had agreed to raise the basic salary of the employees by 30 per cent against the 50 per cent demand (made by the employees). He said, all the employees had resumed their duties. They had been assured that their salaries would be paid within 15 days of the agreement.
Earlier, the chairman of the trust, Mr M.L. Jhanji, admitted that there was some delay in the payment of salary to the staff, mostly the nurses and the doctors. He said while the nurses’ dues had been cleared till May 2004, that of the doctors was cleared by December 2003. He said the hospital, which was charitable, was facing a financial crunch. He disclosed that the government had not paid the due aid to the hospital for past three years. This amount alone came to about Rs 45 lakh. He said, a suit was pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on the issue.
Referring to the charges of embezzlement levelled by the striking employees, Mr Jhanji maintained that the management had no role in it. He, however agreed that one of the employees, Jaswinder Singh had admitted to having embezzled an amount of Rs 3.12 lakh. He has reportedly returned Rs 45,000 and had assured to return the remaining money also. He said the management was yet to receive the audit report following which all the necessary legal actions would be taken against the accused.
Mr Jhanji also sought to clarify the issue of the sale of prime land in Sarabha Nagar. He disclosed that the management had already purchased about 10 acres in lieu of it. He said the sale of the land was necessitated since it was not enough for setting up of a hospital within 800 square yards. The management decided to shift to Katani Kalan.
Mr G.S. Chopra also clarified that the hospital did not get any significant amount as rent from 200 shops owned by it. He pointed out that since these shops had been rented about 50 years ago to people who had migrated from Pakistan on compassionate grounds, the rent was quite nominal and it did not amount to much.
Others present at the meeting included Mr K.L. Malhotra, Mr BD Arora, Mr Pramod Dada and Dr T.S. Cheema, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital.
