India, April 22 -- Resident doctors in civic hospitals will launch a phased protest from Wednesday as negotiations with the civic administration over non-implementation of revised dearness allowance (DA) and payment of arrears have failed.

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (BMC MARD) said the agitation follows repeated meetings that yielded no outcome, even as revisions in DA were cleared three times but remained unimplemented. The doctors allege that despite a cumulative 31% increase in DA over several revisions, the revised rates do not reflect in their salaries.

Dearness allowance is a cost-of-living adjustment meant to offset inflation, and is revised periodically. According to the association, first-year resident doct...