On the 13th day they tied ribbons over their eyes at King George Hospital. The stipend gap they want closed is still open.

They covered their eyes so the government would see the work.

On Saturday, 22 August 2026, junior doctors of Andhra Medical College staged a symbolic blindfold protest at King George Hospital in Visakhapatnam. They tied ribbons over their eyes. The agitation entered its thirteenth day. Thirteen is the Saturday count at King George Hospital. It is not the Thursday Secretariat count, and it is not the Kurnool count. Those clocks stay apart.

The Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors’ Association pointed to stipend disparity with other States. Doctors said they were working long hours and shouldering a large share of hospital work, and that the government had not recognised workload or concerns. At King George Hospital their public line was: “Our work, concerns and the disparity in our stipends are not visible to the government. We urge the government to focus on our genuine demands and take immediate steps to resolve them.”

The association objected to a unilateral government press note of 19 August 2026. It welcomed an annual revision mechanism in principle but said the government’s 5 percent baseline for interns and 3 percent annual increment for postgraduate and super-speciality residents was a pay cut against about 10 percent state-level inflation.

The association demand is a 20 percent base fitment correction for 2026, then annual revision tied to consumer-price-index inflation plus 3 percent real growth. It had already cut its demand from a 30 percent biennial revision to 20 percent. A 20 percent hike, on the association’s calculation, would take first-year postgraduate stipends to ₹72,988 — still below the ₹90,000 to ₹1,00,000-plus range it cited for permanent faculty. ₹72,988 is the association’s arithmetic, not a sanctioned figure.

The association put its demands at 0.6 percent of the State’s ₹19,264 crore healthcare budget for 2026–27. A separate Vijayawada-track line said a 15 percent increase would cost an extra ₹87.91 crore a year — about 0.5 percent of the health department’s 2026–27 Budget Estimates. This desk will not collapse 0.6 percent of ₹19,264 crore with the 0.5 percent / ₹87.91 crore line. They stay labelled.

It asked enforcement of the National Medical Commission 15 percent ceiling on non-medical Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy faculty in pre- and para-clinical departments, which it said now stand at 27–30 percent in the State, and a ban on non-medical staff in clinical teaching.

Saturday’s leadership briefing named president Dr Eshwar Shankar, general secretaries Dr Lukhman Ali, Dr Dinakar Srinivas and Dr Ravi Teja Naik, and vice-presidents Dr Jogi Kamal and Dr Bhargav Sai Naidu. A two-day ultimatum: if high-level talks do not yield a comprehensive government order, the stir will escalate.

The first meeting with Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav was at the Secretariat on Thursday, 20 August. Association treasurer D. Ranjeet said there was no positive outcome and the strike would continue, with another round of talks assured: “There was no positive outcome from the meeting. The strike will continue. However, we have been assured of another round of talks soon.” A Health Department release said the Minister told them the government could not continue the 15 percent biennial stipend hike, and that the other two demands — National Medical Commission recruitment rules on Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy faculty, and opposition to retirement age 65 — need not worry them.

Thursday was the tenth day of the strike and the fourth since emergency services were withdrawn. That is the Vijayawada clock. Kurnool Government General Hospital, on a separate 20 August filing, was also on its tenth day; local association president Dr T. Nishanth said 75 junior doctors donated blood at the Old CLG dharna camp. He called Health Secretary G. Veerapandian’s 5 percent intern and 3 percent postgraduate announcement unilateral and said senior residents were missing from it. Kurnool is the spelling this desk will keep.

Visakhapatnam holds the blindfold. Vijayawada holds the minister meeting. Kurnool holds the blood camp. Three clocks must not be collapsed into one.

What this card does not contain is a signed government order settling the stir. No comprehensive GO. No end date for the emergency boycott. The honest picture is a thirteenth-day blindfold at King George Hospital, a rejected 5-and-3 percent note, a 20 percent fitment demand, ₹72,988 as the association’s first-year postgraduate arithmetic, two separate budget-share calculations that stay apart, a National Medical Commission ceiling fight at 15 versus 27–30 percent, a two-day ultimatum, a Thursday meeting with no positive outcome, and a Kurnool blood donation of 75 doctors on the tenth day. Until a government order writes, the teaching-hospital emergency gap remains the public-interest file.