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Quota: Medicos in no mood to relent
AS PART of the nation-wide anti-reservation protest, the one-day strike of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Institute of Medical Sciences in Banaras Hindu University turned into an indefinite strike here from Tuesday. In a unique way of their protest against the Union government?s proposal to increase reservations at Central-Govt funded higher academic institutes, the medical students set up a parallel out patient dept ward on the IMS premises and diagnosed the patients here today.
AS PART of the nation-wide anti-reservation protest, the one-day strike of undergraduate and postgraduate students at Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) turned into an indefinite strike here from Tuesday.
In a unique way of their protest against the Union government’s proposal to increase reservations at Central-Government funded higher academic institutes, the medical students set up a parallel out patient department (OPD) ward on the IMS premises and diagnosed the patients here today. Now the medical students are contemplating a ‘hunger strike to get their demands fulfilled.
Besides, the medical students polished boots and cleaned auto-rickshaws in Lanka area to register their protest here today.
However, the medical students stayed away from all sorts of medical services including emergency services, out patient department (OPD) and intensive care unit (ICU) at Sir Sunderlal Hospital in BHU on the second consecutive day to register their protest here today. “It is the government, which has forced us to go on the strike, otherwise we do never want to leave the patients and that’s why we have set up our own OPD”, said a member of Resident Doctors Association.
The agitated medical students, under the banner of Resident Doctors Association (RDA) set up their own OPD counters including gynaecology, paediatrics, surgery and medicine, and extended medical support besides distributing medicines to the patients coming from far off places to Sir Sunderlal Hospital in BHU.
Medical students of Ayurveda faculty have also extended their support to ongoing protest. Apart from this, students of various other faculties and institutes including arts faculty, faculty of management studies, law faculty, science faculty and institute of agricultural sciences of BHU have joined the agitation.
Members of RDA said that they would continue to serve the patients from their own OPD counters on IMS premises and support the nation-wide protest till their demands were not fulfilled. “We do not want to sit idle and force the innocent patients to suffer”, said a RDA member, adding, “We would continue to do our ‘karma’ and serve the patients, but at the same time we would continue to register our protest against the reservation policy.”
Further the agitated students warned to go on a ‘hunger strike’ in case their demands were fulfilled with immediate effect.
Medical Superintendent of SS Hospital, Prof. Churamani Gopal said that there was nothing wrong if the medical students were serving patients from their own OPD counter. “It is a peaceful protest and also we do not want to let the public suffer”, said Prof. Gopal.
