Chennai, Sep 10 (IANS): The Legal Coordination Committee for Tamil Nadu Government Doctors (LCC) has come out against the claims made by the state health minister that a consensus has been arrived on the salary demands of the doctors.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the committee’s President, Perumal Pillai, charged that Health Minister Ma Subramanian’s statements on a consensus being arrived at regarding the salary demands of government doctors were misleading and would only deepen the existing discontent among them.

The LCC leader said that unlike other states, Tamil Nadu has not adjusted doctors’ salaries to match those of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi.

In the statement, the LCC urged the Health Minister to implement pay band four as per Government Order (G.O.) 354, which was issued in 2009 during the DMK’s previous tenure.

He said that this order mandates that state government doctors’ salaries must be aligned with those of Central government doctors.

In the statement, Perumal Pillai criticised the government for issuing GO 194 by the DMK government as “a divisive move” and said that this was not sought by the doctors.

Perumal Pillai also stated that doctors had provided huge support to the state government during the COVID-19 pandemic and while the Karnataka government fulfilled its obligations in recognition of the medical staff’s contribution, the Tamil Nadu government had failed to do the same.

Perumal Pillai also stated that the Health Minister’s purported statement of resolving the matter regarding the salary through several rounds of talks was not correct.