BJP prevents Ramadoss from making statement in LS

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) The BJP-led Opposition today prevented Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss from making a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha on the ongoing agitation by AIIMS resident doctors on the delay in the award of degrees, forcing the adjournment of the House ahead of lunch break.

The BJP members were on their feet when Dr Ramadoss got up to make the statement blaming AIIMS Director P Venugopal for the present crisis in the institute.

The Opposit on members interrupted him as they accused the Minister of being responsible for the crisis in the premier health institute.

In the melee, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee asked the Minister to place his statement on the table of the House and adjourned the House ahead of lunch break.

In his statement, Dr Ramadoss said he had directed Mr Venugopal to hold a convocation within a month to present pending degrees to students.

Pointing out that the strike had paralysed the functioning of AIIMS, he said he had also asked the director to take necessary steps to ensure that the strike was called off and the patient care service restored immediately.

''My utmost sympathy is with the students who are waiting the award of degrees for more than two years which is primarily due to delay in holding a convocation,'' Dr Ramadoss said, while directly blaming the director, with whom he has been at loggerheads, for the delay.

He said a convocation of AIIMS was organised every year, sometime in February when the degrees were awarded to successful students.

''The degrees shall bear signatures of President, Director, Dean and the Registrar of AIIMS,'' he said, highlighting the procedure followed.

In this context, he pointed a finger at the director for not organising a convocation for the last two years.

However, as a special case considering the requirement of original degrees for students appearing in USMLE, USA, 54 MBBS degres of 2005 were signed by all concerned to be awarded to the students. Similarly for the year 2006 also, 49 MBBS degrees were forwarded by the director on August 2007 for his (Minister) signature as AIIMS president.

These degrees were signed, among others, by a certain Dr Sandeep Aggarwal as registrar of the institute, whereas the registrar appointed by the governing body was Mr V P Gupta.

The governing body, the appointing authority for registrar under the AIIMS regulations, had decided to allow Mr Gupta to continue as registrar in its meetings in January and May this year.

Since the degrees were signed by a person other than Mr Gupta, Dr Ramadoss said he had returned the degrees to the director asking him to ''rectify'' the mistake at the earliest.

''Any degree signed by an unauthorised person will render the degree illegal and invalid,'' Dr Ramadoss pointed out, while regretting that the resident doctors resorted to strike without apreciating his concern for their future.

UNI