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GSVM medicos go on indefinite strike
AFTER DITHERING for long, GSVM Medical College students finally decided to go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday night to protest against the Centre?s OBC quota move. GSVM students, who requested anonymity, said medicos of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, played a pivotal role in clinching the decision and students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) provided the moral support.
AFTER DITHERING for long, GSVM Medical College students finally decided to go on an indefinite strike from Wednesday night to protest against the Centre’s OBC quota move.
GSVM students, who requested anonymity, said medicos of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, played a pivotal role in clinching the decision and students of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) provided the moral support.
They said that some final year medicos of GSVM Medical College had gone to New Delhi to take the Post-Graduate entrance examination of the AIIMS on May 7. There they interacted with AIIMS students on the quota issue. At that time, the national capital was simmering with agitation against reservation, they said.
Some senior medicos here were in contact with a resident doctor of AIIMS, who was leading the anti-reservation campaign in New Delhi. Finally, after parleys with AIIMS medicos, UG students of GSVM Medical College here decided to go on strike, the students added.
Meanwhile, some medicos are about to leave for AIIMS in New Delhi to express solidarity with their counterparts there. A medico said, “We have been invited to join the anti-reservation protest in New Delhi.”
The medicos were maintaining silence on the issue as some senior students felt as their results were yet to be announced they did not want to take any chance with their academic career. Some students claimed that the college administration knew about their efforts. However, the rigorous efforts of AIIMS medicos finally yielded results when GSVM garnered courage and decided to come out openly in support of their striking counterparts in other parts of the country.
In IIT-K, some students had been trying to lend their support to GSVM medicos.
On Wednesday evening, on the assurance from some IITians that they would support the striking medicos here, the decision go on indefinite strike was taken.
Meanwhile, Chandrashekhar, general secretary of the newly floated Paritrana, told Hindustan Times, “We are against reservation. Paritrana is in touch with striking students across the country and soon we will let the people know about our strategy.”
Day 1: LLR OPD closed
THE OUT Patient Department at the LLR Hospital remained closed on the first day of the indefinite strike against Centre’s quota move. However, emergency services remained open for two hours from 12 pm.
The Radio Diagnosis Department functioned as usual but the X-rays and ultrasounds were fewer in number on account of the poor turnout of patients at the hospital. Though several junior resident doctors were seen performing to their duties at the LLR Hospital, they too extended their support to the strike.
The girl students openly opposed the proposed reservation hike and sat at the entrance of the emergency ward. Deploring the tyrannical attitude of the government and raising slogans against HRD Minister Arjun Singh, they, along with their male counterparts, took out a march on the hospital premises.
Interestingly, some senior professors who had to perform duty in the emergency, also flayed the government’s proposed reservation hike. A senior professor while talking to HT said, “My moral support is with the striking medicos and I deplore any kind of reservation in the higher studies.”
On the other hand, for the first time in the history of the GSVM Medical College, final year students got summer vacation. On Tuesday, students of para Y1 and Z1 batches were sent on leave till June 1. Next day, the college administration gave holiday notices to students of para X1 batch.
Meanwhile, in IIT-K, some students were busy garnering support for the medicos and the anti-reservation campaign. IITians said that they would soon take out a cycle procession from IIT-K gate to GSVM Medical College. But, sources said that the move to gather support was not gaining momentum as most of the BTech students had proceeded on summer leave.
Nevertheless, the striking medicos said that they would attend to serious patients and would ensure the general public did not suffer on account of the strike.