INSIDE DELHI: The scene on Parliament Street on Friday before the anti-reservation agitation by medicos was suspended.

NEW DELHI: With the Reservation Bill being referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee after being introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday, doctors and students protesting under the `Youth for Equality' banner here in the Capital have suspended their agitation till the next session of Parliament.

Resident doctors of five government-run hospitals in the Capital, including the AIIMS and the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), who were on mass casual leave for the second day on Friday, resumed their duties in the afternoon after calling off their protest. The agitation by the medicos had badly affected services at the two hospitals on Thursday.

"We are calling off our protests with immediate effect. The fact that the Bill has been referred to a committee is a moral victory for `Youth for Equality'. Also, resident doctors in the Capital who continued to be on mass casual leave on Friday morning will join work immediately," said AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association president Binod Patra.

Stating that doctors would put in extra hours to make up and clear the patient load, Dr. Patra said, "We will now use this time to regroup. We understand that it is a short-term victory and we will now organise ourselves better, mobilise public opinion and explore legal options. What we are demanding is free and quality primary education for all. Reservation certainly is not the way forward."

Meanwhile, on Friday morning doctors from various government hospitals across the Capital and students from medical colleges, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, and Delhi University took part in a protest demonstration at Jantar Mantar. They blocked traffic there for over an hour.

Some of the students who tried to demonstrate at India Gate earlier were ferried to Jantar Mantar in buses by the police. The protesters also blocked traffic on Tolstoy Marg and Janpath.

Some of them were detained when they tried to disrupt traffic in the inner circle of Connaught Place.

Though the students had proposed to gherao Parliament on Friday, heavy police presence prevented them from doing so.

Pro-quota dharna

A pro-reservation dharna was also organised at Janatar Mantar by activists of the Indian Justice Party (IJP). Addressing the gathering, IJP president Udit Raj said the manner in which students were protesting was unfortunate as the Bill does not envisage any dilution of seats in the general category.

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