Now resident docs in Delhi go on mass casual leave

Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur had onTuesday said, "If you (doctors) do not want to work, then resign. You are not factory workers that you will resort to such protests. Shame on you.

New Delhi, March 22: Over 40,000 resident doctors of government hospitals in the national capital will go on casual leave en masse on Thursday in support of their counterparts in Maharashtra who are on strike.

Residents doctors from around 40 government hospitals, including those run by civic bodies, will go on mass leave, but those on emergency duty will work. "The decision has been taken in view of increasing incidents of assaults on doctors and also to show solidarity towards our colleagues in Maharashtra.

We also condemn the action taken by Maharashtra government against the doctors," Dr Pankaj Solanki, president of The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association said. FORDA is an umbrella body of all residents doctors in Delhi. In AIIMS, around 1,200 resident doctors today turned up on duty expressing solidarity with their striking counterparts in Maharashtra.

They have decided to continue this novel protest tomorrow as well. "Nobody bothers about resident doctors who were brutally beaten up. Instead of providing security to resident doctors at their workplace, the Maharashtra government is threatening them of deducting their salaries and throwing them out of their hostels," president of Resident doctors' Association of AIIMS Dr Vijay Gurjar said.

"We, the resident doctors at AIIMS, will work with helmets on in the emergency department tomorrow as well," he said. Over 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra have been staying away from work since Monday demanding better security at hospitals in the wake of a string of attacks on their colleagues in the state.

Nearly 40,000 doctors, all members of the Maharashtra chapter of the Indian Medical Association, too decided to shun work and join the resident doctors in their strike. Today, the Maharashtra government has ordered the striking doctors to report to duty by this evening or lose six months' salary.

Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur had onTuesday said, "If you (doctors) do not want to work, then resign. You are not factory workers that you will resort to such protests. Shame on you. How can doctors behave in such a manner?"

PTI