On Wednesday the Health Minister warned that unless staffers get back to work immediately, their contracts would be terminated and fresh recruitment would be made in their place. “I request employees to call off their strike immediately and go back to work from today. Their demands are unreasonable,” he added.

Ramadoss said the government cannot let the entire medical system be paralysed this way. “We will start advertising for walk-in interviews from tomorrow. All temporary staff will be sent home immediately and their contracts will be terminated,” he said, adding the new employees are going to be made permanent. On the workers’ demands, he said, “Hospital patient-care allowance has not been stopped and we don’t plan to do it either.”