Striking medicos continue stir, medical bandh in Delhi

New Delhi, May 31 (UNI) Unfazed by the Supreme Court warning, medicos today continued agitating against the 27 per cent OBC quota in centres of higher education while services were hit in hospitals and clinics here because of a medical bandh called in support of the protest.

''We are yet to receive a copy of the judgement. As of now, our agitation is on,'' Dr Binod Patra of the Youth for Equality, the group spearheading the protest, said.

The striking medicos had decided to go ahead with their strike after nearly six-hour long discussion and consultations with legal experts at All India Institute of Medical Sciences early today.

Students at the forefront of the agitation here, however, said they would meet again later in the day in view of the Supreme Court's fresh directive to immediately call off the strike.

The agitation was no longer a Delhi-centric phenomenon and those protesting the Government move across the country would have to be consulted before any decision is taken, they maintained.

Meanwhile, hospitals, clinics and a majority of chemist shops across the city, barring Government hospitals, observed a bandh today in response to a call by the Delhi Medical Association.

Only Emergency and Casualty units functioned in hospitals while the Out Patient Department and surgical units remained shut.

''The OPD and surgical units are not functioning even in Government hospitals,'' DMA President K K Agarwal, however, claimed, while maintaining that every private nursing home, clinic and hospital had joined the strike.

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