Faculty members of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), Safdarjung Hospital and University College of Medical Sciences went on leave en masse.
NEW DELHI: After rejecting the Government proposal, medicos on Monday stepped up their anti-reservation stir with faculty members of three premier hospitals going on mass casual leave and the medical fraternity gearing up for a total shutdown on Wednesday.
The striking medicos got a boost as students of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi began a relay hunger strike at their campuses to express solidarity with them.
Faculty members of Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), Safdarjung Hospital and University College of Medical Sciences went on leave en masse in support of the agitation while senior doctors of AIIMS have decided to observe a day-long hunger strike on Tuesday.
The medical fraternity is also gearing up for a bandh on Wednesday. "Every private hospital to corporate health institute and small clinic to medical college will remain closed on Wednesday in support of the fortnight-long agitation", Dr Vinod Patro, President of AIIMS Resident Doctors' Association, told PTI.
Around 15 students each from IIT and JNU began a relay hunger strike in their respective campuses demanding review of the reservation policy and setting up of a judicial commission for the purpose, representatives of 'Youth for Equality' said.
"We are demanding the judicial review because we feel that reservation has not served its purpose for the last 50 years and it should be scrapped," said Sanjay Pandey, who is coordinating the hunger strike stir at both the institutes.
Meanwhile, some senior doctors of the Lady Hardinge Medical College also went on casual leave in support of the anti-quota agitation, representative of Youth for Equality, which is spearheading the agiation, said.
The striking medicos also disrupted walk-in-interviews for the post of senior doctors at AIIMS this morning, forcing the hospital authorities to postpone the recruitment drive indefinitely.
Medicos had last week stopped walk-in-interviews at Safdarjung Hospital also.
The deadlock over the anti-reservation stir persisted with students on Sunday night rejecting a government proposal not to decrease the number of seats in non-reserved categories in medical educational institutions.
Government has also said that it will examine one of the key demands of striking medicos for constituting an experts committee to go into the issue of quota in central higher education centres.
Students spurned both the proposals, saying they were "superficial" as the Government has not specified any time frame for setting up the committee and addressed only the demands of medical students.
The government proposal came after negotiations between medicos and Union Minister Oscar Fernandes. The minister later met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the issue.
The government's eight-point offer in writing also include raising the retirement age of faculty members of government medical institutions and an assurance that no disciplinary action would be taken against the strikers.
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