Striking doctors to be evicted from hostel

With the strike entering third day on Thursday, the state government has warned to evict agitating resident doctors from their hostels if they don’t report to work by Friday morning.

Nearly 3,500 resident doctors, including 2,000 in Mumbai, have struck work since Tuesday to press for their demands, which include higher stipend and better working conditions.

Vijay Kumar Gavit, medical education minister, said, “If the resident doctors fail to call off the protest and return to work by Friday, we will evict them from their hostels.”

Gavit also said he had asked authorities to inform the striking doctors’ parents, in writing, that their wards had disobeyed court’s orders and were holding patients to ransom.

Gavit said the government had accepted most demands, including bond provisions, OBC tuition fee, and an increase of Rs 5,000 in gross stipend. “How can medical students who are entitled only to stipend demand basic pay of Rs15,500 and dearness allowance,” he asked.

Meanwhile, as many as 1,000 patients were examined by the protesting resident doctors as they set up a parallel out door patients departments (OPDs) outside their respective college hospitals and refused to end their strike.

“Why should patients suffer because of our protest? We have started a parallel OPD outside hospital premises,” said Dr Swapnil Kulkarni, MARD representative from BYL Nair hospital.

Dr Sandip Gadekar, general secretary of MARD, said, “We are ready to evict our hostels but won’t step backwards unless the authorities give us in writing accepting out demands.”