AIIMS asks docs to vacate hostel rooms

Soon after medical students protesting against the new caste-based quotas in institutions of higher learning on Sunday rejected PM Manmohan Singh’s plea to call off their nationwide strike, authorities at the AIIMS asked the doctors to either join work or vacate their hostel rooms.

The agitating medicos, however, said that they would not bow to “suppressive techniques of the government”. “The appeal carries no meaning as it makes no mention of our demands. These are the double standards - on the one hand they are talking to us and on the other the same people are trying to target us through these suppressive techniques,” Kumar Harsh of Youth for Equality, said.

“They have asked us to vacate the rooms within 24 hours but none of us are going to do so,” Harsh said. “We are trying to convince the 30 doctors, who have been on indefinite strike to break their fast so that other protesters can take their place,” he added.