Medicos intensify stir, Nation-wide medical bandh tomorrow

New Delhi, May 24: A day after the Government decided to implement 27 per cent reservation for OBCs, striking doctors and students today intensified the agitation and appealed to the masses to support the stir by joining tomorrow's ''civil disobedience'' protest.

As the strike entered its eleventh day today, the medicos today staged peaceful sit-in demonstrations outside hospitals where walk-in interviews were being held to recruit retired and junior doctors to normalise medical services crippled due to the agitation.

They have decided to withdraw parallel OPD service in all the hospitals, including AIIMS and Safdarjung hopsitals, from tomorrow in protest. However, emergency services will remain functional in all hospitals.

Several units of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) will observe a nation-wide 'medical bandh' tomorrow to oppose the Government's decision.

Members of the AIIMS Faculty Association will go on mass casual leave for a day tomorrow to expresses solidarity with the medicos.

''We are disappointed with the Government and its handling of the entire issue. We support them till they get justice,'' a Faculty Association spokesperson said.

They holding a candlelight march at AIIMS tonight.

The students and doctors have pledged to continue with the strike and make it more aggressive and intense.

''We will go on come what may...The Government has stabbed us in the back but that will not weaken us. We appeal to people from all walks of life to support us and join the civil disobedience hours tomorrow,'' Dr Harsh Kumar, leader of Youth for Equality, which is spearheading the agitation, said.

The striking medicos have appealed to people from all walks of life to boycott work from 0900 hrs to 1200 hrs as mark of ''civil disobedience''.

''This call is only for Delhi and we will prove it to the Government that we mean business,'' he added.

He said Banking Associations, traders, RAW and Truckers Associations had pledged support for tomorrow's campaign.

Almost all state units of the IMA, including Punjab, Gujarat, Orissa and Haryana, have confirmed the work boycott in their respective states.

IMA General Secretary Vinay Aggarwal said the state branches of the Association had been authorised to chart out their own strategies.

He said on May 20 the Central Committee of the Association had authorised the state units to take their decisions.

''We condemn the government's attitude.... they have not heeded any demand raised by the striking doctors and students,'' he added.

The issue could have been resolved amicably but the government lost the opportunity, Dr Aggarwal said.

The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) will hold a sit-in and day-long hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in support of the agitating doctors and medical students.

DMA Secretary Girish Tyagi said Delhi had observed a bandh on May 15, but DMA would welcome any affiliated body joining the strike.

''Any organisation which wants to join the medical bandh is welcome to do so.... It is their decision and we will not stop them,'' he clarified.

In order to ensure that health services are not affected, Municipal Corporation of Delhi will deploy doctors in its three major hospitals drawn from other municipal medical institutes.

On May 15, the IMA had called a medical bandh which completely paralysed the medical services in all hospitals, including private institutions.
Heavy deployment of police and Rapid Action Force has been done in and around AIIMS where the medical students started the indefinite hunger strike on May 13. Since more than 130 of the fasting 180 medical students had taken ill more students have joined in. As many as 125 students are now on an indefinite hunger strike at AIIMS.

The Striking doctors and medical students appealed to the interview candidates not to become a ''tool'' in the hands of the government to weaken the agitation and help it restore the severely-hit hospital services.

Waving placards with messages -- 'Don't Stab us in the Back' and 'Join Your Agitating Brethren'-- the agitating doctors and students had gathered at Safdarjung Hospital and Delhi government's Deen Dayal Upadhayaya, Gobind Ballab Pant, Guru Teg Bahadur and Lok Nayak hospitals.

At Safdarjung Hospital, senior consultants refused hold the interviews, saying the faculty was opposed to such ''provocative steps by the government''.

The agitating doctors and students said they will foil all such ''tactics'' of the government to tide over the crisis arising out of the eleven day long-strike by them.

They claimed that most of the candidates had been convinced not to appear for the interviews.

''We are appealing to the candidates not to appear for the interviews and join us.... We all are from the same fraternity and we should be united in this hour of crisis,'' said Dr Manisha Aggarwal at GTB hospital.

Dr Anirudh Lochan, leader of 'Youth for Equality', said after yesterday's decision, the government will not be allowed to weaken the agitation by such pressure tactics.

''The government stabbed us in the back.... It is going ahead with its plan to implement 27 per cent OBC reservation without considering our demands. We will make out agitation more intense now,'' he said.

''The government had assured us during negotiation that there will be an increase in the number of seats and institutions to implement the OBC reservation in a phased manner but even that had not been considered in its decision,'' he said.

He said the government had an opportunity to resolve the contentious issue in an amicable way but now it has lost that opportunity and it will be responsible for the consequences.

The UPA Left coordination meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, last night decided to implement in letter and spirit the 93rd Constitutional Amendment enabling 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher educational institutions.

A specific bill will be brought in the Monsoon session of Parliament in this regard.

The striking doctors and students have been demanding complete roll-back of the proposal for 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in higher education institutions, besides setting up of a non-political judicial committee to review the existing reservation policy.

The doctors and medical students of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Safdarjang, Guru Tegh Bahadur, Maulana Azad and the Lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narain hospitals are on strike.

Resident and Junior doctors of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Ram Manohar Lohia, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Ihbas hospitals had also joined the stir.

UNI