New Delhi - New Delhi   

Doctors up in arms

Staff Reporter

Stay away from work protesting conversion charges

NEW DELHI: Doctors in the Capital went on a day-long strike and also staged a demonstration near Mahatma Gandhi’s Samadhi at Raj Ghat here on Wednesday. They were protesting against the parking and mixed land use charges announced recently by the Union Urban Development Ministry.

According to Indian Medical Association media coordinator Narender Saini, the bandh was “a total success” as the majority of doctors in the city kept their clinics, laboratories and nursing homes closed for the day.

Delhi Medical Association finance secretary Harish Gupta said word about the bandh was spread through the local branches of DMA. He said parking charges being demanded by the Government were unreasonable and if this continued most private doctors would have to shut shop. Eighty per cent of the Capital’s health care needs are catered to by private practitioners, he pointed out.

Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party president Harsh Vardhan said: “How will I manage if I have to pay more than I earn? I kept my clinic closed today as a mark of protest.”

With the June 30 deadline for payment of conversion and parking charges looming ahead, medical personnel in the city are up in arms against what they term “irrational and unjustified” charges.

However, some doctors admitted that conversion charges were acceptable since they were using residential property for commercial purposes. Parking charges, though, came in for opposition from almost all health care practitioners.

Vijay Giridher, a senior ENT consultant who runs a private clinic at Pitampura, said: “The convergence charges are justified and I am willing to pay them, but the parking charges are illogical. How can you expect my patients to walk two miles to my clinic after parking their vehicle?”

A senior pulmonary specialist at Jaipur Golden Hospital, Rajiv Goyal, said there had been a communication gap between the authorities and professionals. “No one has approached the medical fraternity. The parking plans in particular remain fuzzy and no one knows where or even when the parking lots will be constructed,” he added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Chekhovian comedy at play
Clearance to Games Village site illegal: Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan
India to step up defence ties with Thailand
Antique idols worth crores recovered
weather
67 crore sanctioned for rural schemes
‘Publicise conversion charges’
DDA told to prepare a record of all its land
‘Democracy has weakened in post-Emergency era’
Doctors up in arms
Mayor appeals to traders
DUTA condemns police brutality
Contract signed
JNU protest continues
‘Green rules to be followed’
Suicide bid
Man detained
Special schools for rag-pickers
Army assures all help to Delhi Govt. for Commonwealth Games
Mobile ‘hacker’ arrested
Alleged suicide
Vendor killed
Kids drown in sewage tank
Padyatra
In the capital today
Emergency landing
“People moving out of Kolkata”

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu