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Quota: Action against striking doctors likely

       New Delhi: With doctors in government-run hospitals refusing to back down from their strike over OBC reservations in higher education institutions, the Union Health Ministry today said that action could be taken against the former if they continued with their agitation. Officials of the Delhi Government, police, the health and home ministries, besides other departments, reviewed the emerging situation at a meeting here. Informed sources said the planned action could include serving memos on the striking resident doctors if they continued to abstain from work. Particular concern was expressed about the participation of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the nodal body representing the country's medical community, in the agitation against reservations. The mass indefinite hunger strike by medical students in the capital against proposed quota for OBCs in elite educational institutions entered the second day even as they received support from the IMA, which has called for a day-long closure of health services.

    Normal and emergency services were affected in several hospitals in the city as government and private doctors were observing a day-long strike. Private hospitals have also announced closure of OPD services in support of the strike call given by the IMA and hundreds of patients and their relatives were seen looking for help. However, authorities initiated steps to ensure that essential services were maintained. At least 150 medical students, under the 'Youth For Equality' banner, are on an indefinite hunger strike at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. The students are resident doctors at the Lady Hardinge Medical College, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Maulana Azad Medical College, University College of Medical Sciences and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Rohtak Medical College and the Shimla Medical College. Meanwhile, medical students, doctors and consultants assembled at Mumbai'a Azad Maidan and then marched towards the state secretariat to submit a memorandum demanding judicial probe into Saturday's police excesses on medical students agitating against reservation. The Mumbai chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA), Association has demanded a judicial probe within 48 hours and said it would approach the National Human Rights Commission on the issue. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has asked Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy to conduct a probe into the incident and submit a report within a week. "From the visuals we have seen on TV screens, it looks like excessive force was used against the agitating students," Deshmukh said.

Govt for a middle ground on quota

       New Delhi: The UPA Government today hinted that it was looking for a middle ground on the reservation issue and was aware of the constitutional amendment based on which the current proposals have been suggested. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), which met today at Prime Minister's official residence,7 RCR, discussed the prevailing situation arising out of the country-wide protests against the proposed reservation. Coming out of the meeting, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the "Government would evolve a mechanism in coming days" on the reservation issue and "it would be satisfactory to both sides". Mukherjee also urged the striking medical students to withdraw their strike. The CCPA meeting came in the wake of the ongoing strike by junior and resident doctors in hospitals across Delhi and Mumbai against the reservation issue and the subsequent police high-handedness while controlling the protesting students which led to a virtual shut down in hospitals creating inconvenience for the patients. Earlier in the day, Union Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh said he was willing to talk to the striking doctors. Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss today issued a stern warning to the striking doctors and said: "If junior and senior residents don't join duty, we will have new people for work. It is already in their service contract. They just cannot say one fine day that they are not joining duty". Stating that the strike was going beyond limits, Ramadoss also criticised the media for "instigating" the matter. The doctors however, are not very keen at withdrawing their strike by tomorrow morning.

Arjun offer to talk with 'willing' doctors

       New Delhi/Ludhiana/Mumbai/Kanpur: With the nation- wide protest against the proposed twenty-seven reservation for the Other Backward Classes students in higher educational institutions intensifying, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said on Monday that he was ready to hold talks with the protesting students "if they are willing". Asserting that he had already invited the agitating students for talks but they were not ready for it, Singh said they should meet him so that the issue can be discussed. "How can I go on talking in the air", he said while responding to a query on the issue by reporters here. He further went on to say that the matter was now "likely to be taken up in Parliament".

    Meanwhile, services in several hospitals across the country were disrupted today as doctors and medical students continued their protests.

    In Ludhiana, medical students and doctors, indignant at the police brutality against peaceful protesters, said they were also joining the movement in solidarity with their counterparts from Mumbai and Delhi. "We had staged a protest earlier this month also. We are here to join and support other students in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Orissa, and Bangalore who are protesting against reservations (in educational institutions). We will fight the government till the end. Today's protest was against the baton charge on students in Mumbai where doctors were treated like street dogs and criminals," said a protesting student in Ludhiana. In Mumbai, students plan to further intensify their protests, saying the baton charge by police on medicos was a gross violation of their human rights. "We have support from general public and all the students from various backgrounds whether arts or engineering. People will join us on a larger scale. The intention (of Mumbai police) was not to disperse the mob but to hurt the students," said Sumit, a medical student in Mumbai.

     In Kanpur, the agitators burnt an effigy of the Arjun Singh and demanded hm to roll back the quota proposal. "We want Arjun Singh to roll back his plans of reservations. If he does not mend his way then Indian youth will take the decision and today's youth also has the power to displace him from his political seat," said one protester. In New Delhi, members of the Delhi Medical Association appealed for a shutdown of city hospitals, urging the government to take strict actions against those involved in the Mumbai incident. "Our first demand is that people who were behind baton charge on the medical students in Mumbai should be sent behind bars and strict action should be taken against them. Secondly, all their demands should be met. Reservations might bring vote bank to Arjun Singh (Human Resource Development Minister), but it will play havoc with students professions," said Dr K.K Kapur, President of Delhi Medical Association. "We are against reservations. If there are reservations in management field then students are only marketing a product and if there are reservations in the engineering field then they are constructing buildings but if reservations are in medical field then it is a fatal because they would be playing with a person's life," said a protester.

     The protests have also spread to central India where medical students in the state capital Bhopal marched through the streets, saying reservations in fields like medicine could have a fatal impact on the lives of patients. They said the move would reduce the number of places in elite institutions for students competing on merit, and ultimately affect the quality of education and professional services. A similar government decision in 1990 to reserve more jobs for lower castes had led to nation-wide demonstrations. One Delhi University student had died after setting himself to fire. At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5 percent of their seats to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribal. The government's latest move proposes an extra 27 percent quota for the OBC students who have until now not benefited from the national scheme.