Hospital strike test for Maoists

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All but emergency services have been closed at a hospital in central Nepal as a trade union linked with the ruling Maoists called an indefinite strike.

The protests are at the Indian-owned Manipal Teaching Hospital in the town of Pokhara.

Unions are demanding more pay for staff but the hospital says wages are already above the government-set minimum.

The shutdown comes a week after Maoist leader and PM Prachanda called for an end to the endemic culture of strikes.

'Planned chaos'

The hospital director told the BBC that only the emergency department and intensive care were now open and that sick patients have had to be transferred to the emergency ward.

The union is demanding a staff salary increase of 2,000 rupees, or $25, a month.

The director says the hospital can only afford 1,500 rupees, and that in any case staff salaries are already higher than the minimum fixed by the government.

It was not immediately possible to contact protesters by telephone.

Since the Maoist party was legalised nearly three years ago, trade unions affiliated to it have become dominant in many sectors of the economy.

Numerous workers are glad of the salary hikes the unions have secured.

But there have been a string of incidents where they have been accused of bullying and threatening action.

The hospital closure is notable because just last week Prime Minister Prachanda said that Nepal's endemic culture of strikes and protests must stop because it was scaring away investors.

But the deputy party leader, Baburam Bhattarai, has said in a new article that the party must continue to work in the government, the parliament and, as he put it, "the street".

He said the Maoists were bringing what he called "planned chaos" to advance their revolution.