Med students to agitate, Centre says no new norms for AIIMS 06-07

New Delhi, Apr 28 (UNI) Agitating medical students today said they will launch nation-wide protests next week in continuation with their on going indefinite strike even as the Centre pleaded before the Supreme Court that it is not inclined to apply reservation for admission to the Post graduate courses in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) during the current academic session 2006-2007.

''In continuation with the ongoing agitation we have decided to launch the nation-wide agitation next week. At the moment we are coordinating with students in several places including Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh,'' AIIMS Students' Union spokesperson Sasmit Sarangi told UNI.

He said the agitation against the proposal to provide 27 per cent reservation to OBCs in Central Government educational institutions, was getting support from students of several institutions, including IITs and Delhi University.

''We are getting letters of support from all the parts of the country.... Students from across the country are ready to support us,'' he added.

The students of Maulana Azad Medical College, Lady Hardinge Medical College, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, University College of Medical Sciences and Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College have boycotted lectures and stayed away from OPD services.

Yesterday, Union Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh met representatives of the students but declined to discuss the issue until after elections.

The students decided to continue with the agitation as they were not ''satisfied'' with Mr Singh's response to their demand for roll-back of the proposal.

On Wednesday, hundreds of students of the medical colleges clashed with the police after it prevented them from 'petitioning' against the reservation policy and road blockade.

The students were tear-gassed and sprayed with water cannons when they blocked traffic on Janpath, near Hotel Le Meridian crossing here.

Mild lathicharge was also resorted to in order to break the 'rasta roko', which lasted for more than one-and-a-half hours.

Meanwhile Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium appearing for the Centre pleaded before a bench headed by Mr Justice K G Balakrishnan that yesterday the Centre held a meeting with all the states to find a solution to the controversy regarding quota for reserved category students and it would take another couple of months to frame a uniform reservation policy for admissions. Other judges on the bench were Mr. Justice A R Lakshmanan and Mr Justice D K Jain.

Senior counsel K K Venugopal, appearing for the students entitled for admission on the basis of reservation policy, however pleaded that SC/ST category students were entitled to 22.5 per cent quota in admissions. Second counselling for PG courses is on.

Announcement of reservation in admissions has sparked off agitation by medical students in Delhi and Chandigarh and some students were injured when police used force to disperse them.

The apex court has directed the union health ministry to keep 10 per cent seats in each subject in post graduate courses of medical sciences till further orders.

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