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Doctors striking against quota sacked

      New Delhi: The Centre on Sunday served termination notices on the resident doctors of Lady Harding Medical College, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjang Hospital and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), asking them to vacate the hostels within twenty-four hours. The notices read that the services of the resident doctors of the four hospitals had been terminated and they should leave their hostels in the next 24 hours. The termination order comes as the striking medicos ignored Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal to call off the anti-quota stir, and continued with their protest for the ninth day against the proposal of 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes' students in the country's higher educational institutions.

     Reacting to the termination notice, members of the AIIMS Resident Doctors Association, however, said that they would not vacate the hostels and would also continue with their protests at the hospital's central lawn. The resident doctors later burnt the notices. Meanwhile, seven students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi also joined the medicos in their hunger-strike to show their solidarity and oppose the government proposal. The Prime Minister had yesterday assured the protestors that he would resolve the reservation issue, ''taking into account the interests of all sections'', and appealed to them to withdraw their stir. Singh's assurance came after the Empowered Group of Minister comprising Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, HRD Minister Arjun Singh and Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj reviewed the situation arising out of an agitation and submitted its report to the Prime Minister. Refusing to give details of the report, Mukherjee, said that the reports would be considered by the Cabinet. "But I can characterize the recommendations by saying the report of the group of ministers submitted to the Prime Minister takes into account the interest of all sections of the students community," Mukherjee had said.

    Representatives of the agitating doctors had also met Mukherjee and Chidambaram after which they said that the doctors had agreed not to persist with their demand for a total roll back of the proposed quota for the OBCs, saying government had given an assurance to increase the number of seats in educational institutions. "We met P. Chidambaram (Finance Minister) and Pranab Mukherjee (Defence Minister). They informed us that they are of the view that the seats of the general section of the students should be kept constant. However, the seats for the OBC would be raised as the infrastructure of the colleges are increased," said Manish Nathani, a representative of the striking medicos. The government has proposed an extra 27 per cent quota in the country's state-run medical, engineering and business schools. At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5 percent of their seats to scheduled castes and tribal students.

New doctors through walk-in-interview (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: In a move to avoid any further inconvenience to the patients due to the ongoing anti-quota strike by the government doctors in the national capital, the Government has announced walk-in-interviews for retired and senior doctors to fill the seats fallen short due to the protests. The appointments would be purely on adhoc basis in all specialities as per the requirement, the hospital authorities said. Authorities at the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital have decided to engage ten retired doctors on contract basis for the duration of one month or till withdrawal of strike by doctors, whichever is earlier. All the walk-in-interviews for three government hospitals, namely Safdarjang Hospital, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Lady Harding Medical College, would be taken this week. Medicos have declared that they would continue their strike in view of the government not agreeing to setting up a committee to review the reservation policy.

Students' semi-naked rally against quota (Go To Top)

      New Delhi/Hyderabad: Joining the medicos in their protest against government's proposal to reserve twenty-seven percent seats for students from backward castes, hundreds of students from Delhi University took out semi-naked protest rally and staged a demonstration at Jantar Mantar here on Sunday. Scores of upper caste activists demonstrated with under-garments on in semi-nude condition to protest against the government move. "Being semi-nude we want to demonstrate that many people among upper caste have come to this stage. They have no cloth to cover themselves. They don't have job option. Poor people in upper caste are always ignored whereas the rich among lower caste are being benefited by the government policies," said Hirendra Rathore, President, All India Kshatriya Sangh. Students from Delhi University and other groups condemned the government's proposal of quota in the country's state-run medical, engineering and business schools. According to the protesters the move, if implemented would see nearly half the places reserved for traditionally under-privileged groups. "Increasing number of seats will not make difference. We are against the reservation as a whole. We want it should be rolled back else we will continue with our protest," said Shweta, a student of Delhi University.

    Meanwhile the pro-reservation protesters also staged their protest at Jantar Mantar and expressed their anger against the striking students. "Have you ever tried to know why the students from backward class get only 60 per cent? Under what circumstances they have to study. They have to spend 16 hours in a day in taking care of their family responsibilities. They have to struggle a lot to move ahead after studying only 6-7 hours in a day, whereas the upper caste students get every basic facility along with proper support. They spend thousands of rupees on coaching, "said Vishwa Deepak, a student of PGIMS, Rohtak.

    In Hyderabad also the pro-reservation front strongly staged a demonstration in the support of quotas in jobs as well as in admissions to higher education and professional institutions. "Higher institutes are set up by Acts of Parliament, be it Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or Indian Institute of Management (IIM), they are Government owned institutions, so there is no question of reservation. Reservation is required in higher education because anybody can come here under merit, after paying capitation fees and good coaching but we don't get an opportunity to compete on a level playing field, so reservation is required," said Vijay Laxmi, a pro-reservation demonstrator. Laxmi added that reservation was the only way to ensure quality education of poor students. The government has proposed an extra 27 per cent quota in the country's state-run medical, engineering and business schools. At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5 percent of their seats to scheduled castes and tribal students.

Blood-inked quota letter for Kalam (Go To Top)

     Bhopal: The content of a letter written by Mahesh Yadav, a doctor in Bhopal, to the President APJ Abdul Kalam may not be very unique but his presentation is, however, very different. For Dr. Yadav has written the letter with his blood. The doctor in his letter to the President has urged him to take immediate steps to resolve the ongoing crisis of reservation, which is spiralling in a big way. Mahesh in his letter has also appealed to the President to implement the common education system in the country to fill the gap between the lower and the upper class in the country. "If the son of peon and a collector will study together then I don't think it will require reservation. There is no dearth of talent in our country and it can not be measured on the basis of the cast," said Mahesh Yadav. This is not the first time that Mahesh has done something like this. Earlier he had also written letters in blood to Chinese President for restoring peace in Tibet, and to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. He has also made portraits of many Indian leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi and Shubhash Chandra Bose with his blood.

Protests continue over quota issue (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Students across India, including capital New Delhi on Sunday demonstrated for and against the Centre's move to reserve more college seats for the Other Backward Class (OBC) category students. While anti-reservation students called for removing the proposed 27 percent reservation for OBC students, pro-reservation students called for implementation of the scheme, saying it would bring social justice to the oppressed. "There must be equality for all students. It's pointless increasing the number of seats; we are not asking for it. We want the government to rollback the policy. We are not for it and we will continue protests till the time it is done", said Shweta, a student of the Delhi University. Elsewhere, the pro-reservation students said reservations were the only way to uplift the majority of the Indian population, which was still caught in the backwardness of rural India. "I want to tell my fellow doctors who have lost way, who are not treating their patients, leading to the death of many, that they have forgotten their duties since they went on strike against reservations. There are other ways to put your views across", said Dr. Chandkishore, a doctor. Students in vast numbers are protesting against the implementation of the reservation issue, which would set aside around half the available seats in key institutions for underprivileged students.

    At present, government-funded colleges have to allocate 22.5 percent of their seats to students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category. The proposed 27 percent reservation for the OBC students in premier education institutes across the country along with the existing 22.5 percent reservation would take the total seats under the quota category to nearly 50 percent, leaving only half of the total seats for the General category students. This has led to widespread protests by students in New Delhi and Mumbai and elsewhere across the country. Analysts have also said that the benefit of reservation has not percolated to a vast section of people, while the creamy layer amongst the backward classes corner all the benefits. The Centre has however, been toying with the idea of a phased increase in the intake of students to offset the hiked quota for backward castes.