Punjab among 4 states not paying medics regularly, govt tells SC

New Delhi, July 31

As four states, including Punjab, fail to make timely payment of salaries to doctors and healthcare workers fighting Covid-19, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to issue necessary directions for timely release of salaries to them.

One million recoveries

The government on Friday said India’s clinical management protocol for Covid-19 was yielding results with the fatality rate dropping to 2.18 per cent. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said India had achieved the milestone of more than one million recoveries which had taken the recovery rate to 64.54 per cent. TNS

“If the states are not complying with the directions and orders of the Central Government, you are not helpless. You have to ensure that your order is implemented. You have got the power under the Disaster Management Act. You can take steps also,” a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

The court’s comments came after the Centre said Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tripura were yet to follow directives on timely payment of salaries to healthcare workers.

It asked the Centre to spell out its stand on treating compulsory quarantine period of healthcare workers as leave and deduction of their salaries for the said period and posted the matter for further hearing on August 10.

Claiming that “the period can’t be treated as leave”, Mehta said he would take necessary instructions on the issue. Earlier, petitioners’ counsel KV Vishwanathan complained about non-payment of salaries. —TNS