Electropathy doctors call off strike, climb down from tower

Srinagar, July 3 (UNI) The agitating electropathy degree holders, some of whom had climbed up a BSNL tower here yesterday morning to press for their demand seeking government jobs as doctors, today called off their three-month-long strike following assurances from visiting Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

Representatives of the protesting students met Dr Ramadoss here this afternoon and apprised him of their problems.

According to an agitating student, the Union Health Minister assured the electropathy degree holders that a ''favourable decision'' would be taken within one month.

''We have called off our sit-in strike. We are waiting for the release of our nine fellow doctors. They have been detained at the Kothi Bagh police station. Once they are released, we will remove the tent and other things from the Press Enclave here,'' he said.

The agitating students have also been demanding recognition of their degrees. The Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government was yet to recognise their electropathy degree. The 'doctors' have passed out from the Jammu-based P N Medical Institute of Electropathy.

Earlier talking to journalists, Dr Ramadoss said the Centre had not recognised electropathy as a form of alternative medicine.

''There are thousands of such unrecognised courses run by several private institutions in the country. But, in any case, we will not let the students suffer. We will do something about it,'' he added.

The agitation by the electropathy degree holders took a new turn yesterday morning when as many as five of them climbed up the 70-feet BSNL tower at the Press Enclave here to draw the attention of the state government towards their plight.

The entire Lal Chowk area went into a tizzy soon after the news spread.

Wearing masks and wrapped in a white cloth which looked similar to a shroud, the five students climbed up the tower to enact a scene from superhit Bollywood movie Sholay.

Hundreds of people had gathered at the site since yesterday morning, requesting them to come down.

The students, under the banner of Jammu and Kashmir Electropathy Doctors Association, were on a sit-in at the Press Enclave here for about three months now. They had resorted to various means of agitation during the period.

Earlier, the protestors had written in blood letters of pleas to Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to express ''sense of hopelessness'' and highlight their problems.

UNI