MFEO urges Govt to implement OBC quota proposal

New Delhi, July 18: Expressing concern over the ''caste divide in AIIMS after the anti-quota agitation'', Medicos Forum for Equal Opportunities (MFEO) today urged the UPA government to implement OBCs reservation proposal at the earliest.

''The Government must stop vacillating on the issue of reservation which has only fuelled upper caste chauvinism and implement the reservation proposal at the earliest,'' MFEO Convenor Vikas Bajpai said.

He said the Government must fulfill its promise of increasing the number of seats in institutes of higher education.

''MFEO had brought to fore the dangerous caste divide in the aftermath of the recent anti-reservation agitation which is being sought to be driven deeper by Director P Venugopal and a section of anti-reservation faculty, RDA and Students Union,'' he alleged.

Dr Bajpai said till the beginning of the anti-reservation stir the same section of the faculty and resident doctors used to complain against the '''high handedness''' of Dr Venugopal in conducting the affairs at AIIMS.

''This section of the faculty had gone on record to complain against the dictatorial administration of the Director and some other officials at AIIMS,'' he added.

''The fact is that the aforementioned sections of faculty, residents and students have forged an upper caste chauvinist alliance that has vitiated the atmosphere at AIIMS, resulting in complaints of open discrimination against reserved category students in the hostels,'' the MFEO Convenor alleged.

Claiming that Dr Venugopal had abetted the agitation, he said the MFEO had brought to the notice of the Government several instances when reserved category doctors were prevented from joining duty by many HODs.

''Cooperation was being extended by AIIMS authorities to the protestors by providing them free electricity, water coolers and other facilities,'' he added.

He said despite lending full patronage to the agitation, at the cost of the reserved category doctors and students, Dr Venugopal claims to uphold the interests of AIIMS as one family.

''Both the Government and Dr Venugopal are claiming to be working for preserving the interests of AIIMS, without realising that the first and foremost interest of an institution like AIIMS lies in serving the multitudes of poor patients that throng to its doors,'' he added.

UNI