Photo: T. Singaravelou

RALLYING POINT: JIPMER staff struggle committee members explaining to their collegues outcome of the meeting with Lt. Governor Mukut Mithi at Bharathi Park on Thursday.

Pondicherry: A large number of employees, workers and staff nurses of the centrally administered JIPMER, who are on an indefinite strike, took out a rally here on Thursday to protest against the Union Cabinet's decision to convert the JIPMER into an autonomous body.

An eight-member delegation of the JIPMER Staff Struggle Committee (JSSC), which sponsored the rally, presented a memorandum to the Lt. Governor, Mukut Mithi, at Raj Nivas seeking his intervention to prevent the conversion. The delegation headed by president of the committee S. Dakshinamoorthy and comprising among others its general secretary R. Arochiam Kalaimathy pointed out to the Lt Governor the implications if the institute became autonomous.

The memorandum stated that if autonomy came into existence, JIPMER would start levying hefty charges on poor patients even to issue outpatient cards and for the clinical examinations and investigations. In-patients would be obliged to pay, as had been seen at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi and the PG institute in Chandigarh.

Only the affluent would be able to get medical care in the changed situation. The employees would lose their status of Government staff, as well as the benefits (they were now enjoying).

The management would also adopt its own rules procedures to decide seniority of the staff.

Autonomy would pave the way for handing JIPMER over to private sector. Nepotism and favouritism would rule the roost and sanitary and security works would be totally outsourced to private contractors.

The memorandum also pointed out that students would not be able to get an education affordable within their economic means. Quality of education and research works would also take a backseat and nominated members with a political background in the Governing body would exercise their authority to the detriment of the institution. Earlier the staff had gathered at the Bharathi Park where leaders of joint action committee addressed them.

Hospital services in JIPMER continued to be hit for the seventh day with the employees continuing their indefinite strike launched on September 8. Police were posted in strength at the park.

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