The Hindu : Front Page : Talks with medicos inconclusive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Talks with medicos inconclusive

Special Correspondent

Implementation of ESMA deferred; junior doctors not fully satisfied

HYDERABAD: In a fresh initiative to break the deadlock with the striking junior doctors, the Government held detailed discussions with their representatives on Wednesday evening and explained the steps taken to provide them security at various hospitals.

At the instance of Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who is away in New Delhi, Home Minister K. Jana Reddy held three-hour-long talks with a 17-member team of junior doctors in the Secretariat to persuade them to end the strike.

Not fully satisfied with the Home Minister’s offer, the junior doctors took a break from the discussions to consult State-level leaders of the erstwhile AP Junior Doctors Association on the issue of continuing the strike.

Although the Government adopted a tough posture in the morning by carrying out its threat of invoking the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against junior doctors, it softened later by deferring its implementation and inviting the medicos for talks.

Jana’s explanation

The parleys were, however, deadlocked over the junior doctors’ insistence that the Government put its offer in writing, a demand that the Home Minister flatly turned down.

Mr. Jana Reddy explained that the Government had decided to post a posse of policemen comprising one Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) and 20 constables each in Osmania, Gandhi, Niloufer, Nayapul and Sultan Bazar Hospitals besides the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS). An additional 15 constables would be posted at Niloufer Hospitals in view of the past incidents.

He pointed out to the striking junior doctors that the Government was sincere in resolving their problems and would provide them security at hospitals. This was why it had promulgated an ordinance, the first time that any Government had taken such a measure, he added.

Earlier, the Government issued GO 423 making the provisions of ESMA applicable o the junior doctors by declaring their services as essential. It also imposed a ban on the strike by house-surgeons and post-graduate students of the Government medical and dental colleges in the State.

The ordinance that came into force from midnight on Tuesday following the assent given by the Governor, will treat any act of intimidation or violence on medical fraternity, including nurses and para-medical staff, in the hospitals, as cognizable and non-bailable offence.

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

Front Page