Hyderabad, Nov 9th: Junior doctors in Andhra Pradesh on Monday threatened to go on an indefinite strike, if the state Government did not consider their demand of hike in stipend on par with their counterparts in other states within a 'reasonable' time. The medicos in ten hospitals attached to medical colleges in the state held protest demonstrations in front of the teaching hospitals pressing for a hike in stipend for House Surgeons to Rs 12,000 from Rs 5060 per month and for Post-Graduate medicos to Rs 30,000 from Rs 8395.

Medical services in these hospitals were affected for over an hour following the protest. The medicos also refused to attend to poor patients coming for treatment under the state government's 'Rajiv Aarogyasree' health insurance scheme. AP Junior Doctors Association Convenor S Nagesh told newspersons, ''there is no positive response to the strike notice. We will go for indefinite stir if there is no proper response from the state government in the next 48 hours.'' ''Our counterparts in other states, including Jammu and Kasmir, Gujarat, Bihar and Jharkhand are receiving four to five times more stipend,'' he said, lamenting that the government was turning a blind eye to the demand for over ten years.