The Mohan Majhi government on Tuesday imposed the Odisha Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1988, to prohibit strikes by doctors, nurses and paramedics across all government and grant-in-aid health institutions in the State.
The order, issued by the Home (Special Section) Department, bans any form of cessation of work in medical services, effective from January 6, 2026.
The order came in the wake of a two-hour ceasework by doctors at the outpatient department demanding salaries based on the Central pay structure.
In order to ensure that health care delivery system in the State is not affected or disrupted, the Home Department said the ESMA is applicable to health professionals posted in district headquarters hospitals, sub- divisional hospitals, area hospitals, community health centre, primary health centres and municipality hospitals including medical colleges and hospitals run by government and other autonomous health institutions receiving grant-in aid from the State government.
“In exercise of the power conferred by sub-section (1) of Section-3 read with Section-2 of the Odisha Essential Services (Maintenance) Act 1988 (Odisha Act 9 of 1992), the State government do hereby prohibit strikes in the aforesaid services. The order shall remain in force for a period of six months with effect from the date of issue,” the Home Department said.
The Odisha Medical Services Association had begun a two-hour ceasework at OPDs in support of their 10-point demands. Over 6,000 doctors in 32 district headquarter hospitals, 300 community health centres and other primary health centres are participating in the strike. Subsequently, patient care was affected. The situation is expected to worsen further as doctors announced to intensify their strike if their grievances are not redressed.
“Governments in nearly 20 States have started paying their doctors salaries in line with the Central pay structure. The Dynamic Assured Career Progression (DACP) scheme has also been implemented in several States. However, successive governments in Odisha, including the previous Naveen Patnaik government, have resorted to delaying tactics and avoided granting doctors the salary structure they are entitled to,” said OMSA president Kishore Chandra Mishra.
“Disheartened by the low salary structure, government doctors are increasingly switching to the private sector, pushing the public health system towards a crisis. We have held discussions with the government five to six times, but it has become evident that there is no serious intent to address our demands,” Dr. Mishra added.
OMSA president said the central executive committee of the association would meet on January 15 to assess their protest.
Published – January 07, 2026 01:23 am IST
