THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After a united move by the nurses working in the private hospitals seeking minimum wages, now it is the turn of doctors from the private hospitals.Private Employed Doctors of Kerala , a new committee formed by the doctors of private hospitals, has demanded a minimum salary of Rs 1 lakh for MBBS doctors and Rs 3 lakh for specialist doctors. “The aim of this new move is to organize doctors employed in private hospitals, medical colleges and other health institutions in the state and fight for their causes and defend their rights,” said Dr Jose Kuriyan Kattukaran, chairman of the committee.The doctors themselves know the fact that they are underpaid even in the corporate hospitals and several senior doctors are yet to get salaries for the past six months in some corporate hospitals in the state. “There is definitely a disparity in the payment and in some hospitals they are underpaid. There is also inordinate delay in the payment of salaries to the doctors. This was the reason why such a committee was formed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), in which there are members and non-members of IMA,” said IMA state secretary Dr N Sulphi.The doctors are of the opinion that several smaller hospitals and clinics are shutting down, putting severe job crisis for several doctors. “These doctors are forced to become an employee under the corporate hospitals. But the situation is very bad in several big hospitals. Even though the managements take care of their employees well, the pay structure for the doctors compared to their work load is very poor,” said Dr Sulphi.“Salary is not our main concern. Our objectives are to ensure job security, provide support to the doctors who are facing vengeful action from the managements, put an end to the over exploitation of the doctors with heavy work load, protect our rights, etc.,” said Dr Jose Kuriyan.“Fresh graduates who are put on casualty or ICU duty are paid only between Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000, which is nothing much more than what they receive as stipend during their house-surgency,” said Dr Sulphi.The committee will convene district-level meetings soon and a general body after which a charter of demands will be prepared to be handed over to the hospital managements.