AIIMS Forum demands immediate hike in seats in higher education

New Delhi, June 18 (UNI) A section of the medical fraternity at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today demanded that government fulfill its promise of increasing the number of seats in higher education institutions.

The medicos, under the 'Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunity', today demanded that the UPA government stop vacillating on the reservation issue which had fuelled ''upper caste chauvinism'' and come out clean on its promise of increasing seats in institutes of higher learning.

Accusing its director Dr P Venugopal of ''fuelling caste divide'' among the faculty to further his personal interests, the Forum said it was unfortunate that because of the cross-purposes the institution and the common man was suffering the most.

It also alleged that Dr Venugopal had actively abetted the anti-reservation stir which resulted in AIIMS becoming the hotbed of the agitation. His talking about the interests of the institution was hollow as under him AIIMS authorities and the government had failed to address the long-pending demand for withdrawing the hefty increase in the user charges imposed on poor patients, the medicos charged.

UNI AN LR KN1935