M A I N   N E W S

Anti-quota strike hits health services
Medicos to go on fast from today
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 13
With resident doctors suspending work for a second day today to support the anti-reservation stir, medical services in the Capital remained severely affected. Emergency services, however, remained exempted from the strike, with senior doctors running the service in all major hospitals.

Taking note of the police action against the agitating medical students here yesterday, the Indian Medical Association had called for a day’s token strike and suspension of services on Monday.

The agitating medicos on their part have decided to go an “indefinite hunger strike”, starting Sunday.

While unrelenting students and resident doctors in the city’s five medical colleges and the attached hospitals chose to remain off work, it was the patients who bore the brunt. In the absence of treatment, many had to return disappointed.

Serpentine queues were witnessed in hospitals, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung, Maulana Azad, Lok Nayak hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur hospital.

Accepting that their strike has hit the medical services, students under the banner of the Youth for Equality said senior doctors in most hospitals had been “working doubly hard to ensure that patients are not inconvenienced”.

Blaming the government for the predicament of the patients, the medicos said Friday’s police action had only strengthened their resolve and that they are unwilling to compromise.

“We have now agreed to go on an indefinite hunger strike, which will begin at AIIMS at 10 am on Sunday and all those students who are interested can join us there,” said Ritin, a member of the Youth for Equality and a student of the Vardhaman Medical College.

Criticising the government and the police authorities for the “atrocity” against the protesting students, he said, “Look at what has happened in Mumbai...we are studying to be doctors, we don’t deserve this. We have now appealed to all medical colleges across the country to suspend classes and support us”.

Condemning the action against students, the IMA has urged doctors, including private practitioners, to suspend work on Monday to express solidarity with the students who are seeking the withdrawal of the proposed reservation for OBCs.

Meanwhile, the All India Minorities Front has demanded arrest of the striking doctors. In separate letters to the Prime Minister and the Delhi Chief Minister, Front president S.M. Asif also said the government should invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) and dismiss striking doctors for conduct unbecoming of public servants.