Doctors to hold ''maha rally'' tomorrow against reservation

Jaipur, May 22 (UNI) Resident doctors and medical students in Rajasthan will organise a ''maha rally'' tomorrow to protest against the proposed 27 quota in higher educational institutes.

Apart from 350 striking doctors, around 15,000 people including college students, teachers, engineers, lawyers among others are expected to attend the rally, which will begin from 0800 hours tomorrow from Sawai Man Singh Hospital and proceed to Statue Circle.

Dr Rasshin Kataria, president, Youth for Equality, Jaipur chapter, said, ''Students and resident doctors from all six medical colleges of Rajasthan (Jodhpur, Ajmer, Bikaner, Kota, Udaipur and Jaipur) will participate in the rally.'' The 20-member team of doctors, who had gone to Delhi last week to participate in the ''maha rally'' were encouraged by the response there. Students and doctors were in no mood to relent, they added.

Dr Kataria said, ''After Delhi, Rajasthan is one state where doctors from every corner have joined the agitations. We will continue with our agitation till our demands are met.'' The doctors are demanding the review of the reservation for OBCs, and that the roster system in higher classes for them be scrapped in Rajasthan's medical colleges.

Meanwhile, resident doctors are holding parallel OPD for patients outside the Sawai Man Singh Hospital here. The parallel OPDs, which began yesterday, are expected to continue for some days.

Door-to-door campaigning by about 175 doctors are continuing in various localities of the city where the doctors are trying to make the common man aware of the pitfalls of reservations.

Plays and street corner plays will also be organised by the doctors, to create awareness about the reservation issue.

Meanwhile, students of Ajmer's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College have started a ''relay hunger strike.'' The resident doctors went on an indefinite strike and even held ''wisdom yagya.'' Resident doctors in Jodhpur have also gone on an indefinite strike. In Bikaner, the indefinite strike and ''relay hunger strike'' continue.

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