Postgraduate trainee doctors have again blocked Shahbagh area demanding an increase in their monthly allowance or the 9th grade pay scale.
According to their previously announced programme they gathered at the Bot-tala of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) at 10 am on Sunday to stage demonstration.
They said they will not leave the road until their demand to raise their allowance to Tk 50,000 from 25,000 is met.
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The trained doctors said living on Tk 25,000 monthly allowance in Dhaka is extremely difficult and to ensure proper patient care doctors must be given an allowance of Tk 50,000.
They also said they faced harassment in various forms for their movement during the Awami League regime.
Tanveer Ahmed, a trained doctor at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said, "It is very difficult to live on the allowance we currently receive. We are demanding either Tk 50,000 or the 9th-grade pay scale. If our demand is not met, we will not leave Shahbagh."
On December 22, the trainee doctors had blocked Shahbagh to press home the same demand and on December 26, the government increased the allowance by Tk 5,000 to a total of Tk 30,000.
The postgraduate doctors rejected this decision.