The Hindu : National : BMC to "counsel" parents of striking medicos

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 06, 2006

National

National

BMC to "counsel" parents of striking medicos

Mumbai: Even as the strike by Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) entered the seventh day on Sunday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to hold talks with parents and professors of the striking medicos in a bid to resolve the deadlock.

BMC spokesperson Dadasaheb Shivjatak said the Corporation had called parents and professors of the doctors for counselling.

He said all the OP Departments, which were closed following the strike, would be reopened from Monday with the help of private doctors and public health department doctors.

Mr. Shivjatak said the administration was always willing to hold dialogue with the striking doctors.

MARD spokesperson Dr.Yashodhan Deshpande said: "We appeal to the Government to resolve the issue as early as possible for the sake of public as well as for the future of the doctors."

He, however, said the strike would continue till they received a written assurance from the Government on their demands.

Earlier in the day, MARD spokesperson at J J Hospital, Dr. Yoganand Patil said they had received letters of support from doctors in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Kerala. "We are planning to launch a nation-wide agitation after consulting representatives from other states," he said.

The State Government and BMC have served termination notices on 730 doctors across the state, Dr. Patil informed. The BMC has issued 348 notices while the State Government had issued notices to 270 resident doctors at J J Hospital and 310 resident doctors at Sassoon Hospital in Pune.

Dr. Patil said doctors in Delhi had started working wearing "black badges" to express their solidarity.

He claimed that State Higher Education Minister Dilip Valse-Patil had verbally consented to their demands, "but we want it in writing because since 1988, we have been getting only verbal assurances from the Government."

Once we get a written assurance, we will call off the strike, he added.

The doctors went on strike Monday last after relatives of some patients beat up two doctors at the KEM and Bhabha (Bandra) hospitals on the previous day. — UNI

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