STANDING IN: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, a doctor by profession, attends to a patient at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on Wednesday, as medicos continued their agitation against the Government's reservation pol icy. — Photo: Sandeep Saxena

NEW DELHI: Resident doctors of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and other hospitals in the capital on Wednesday evening called off their 19-day-old strike against the reservation policy.

The decision, taken at a general body meeting of the resident doctors association, followed the Supreme Court's directive earlier in the day that they resume work or face contempt of court.

Students of several medical colleges, however, said they would continue their protest against the proposed 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in higher educational institutions.

A vacation Bench of the Court said, "The right to get treated is inseparable from the right under Article 21 of the Constitution. We required protests, strikes and demonstrations to be called off to avoid inconvenience to patients. The damage done to patients is sometimes irretrievable, but a strike can be remedied and issues examined."

Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said he was hopeful that normality would return to the hospitals by Thursday. "All those who join work will not be penalised but if anyone does not, termination notice will be served on him or her. Disciplinary action could be taken against those continuing the stir but this will be decided later."

Health services in New Delhi were badly affected during the strike period and all efforts to pacify the agitators were in vain. Even the President and the Prime Minister had assured them that the seats in the general quota would not be affected as a result of the reservation.

The agitation had spread to most parts of the country, with doctors and students demanding that the reservation proposal be scrapped and a non-political commission formed to review the reservation policy, among other things.

The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry had planned to recruit 2,000 medical professionals, mostly retired, for hospitals here. Help was also sought from the Army and railway doctors.

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