Medicos suspend anti-quota stir in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Junior doctors in West Bengal on Saturday night decided follow their Delhi counterparts and suspend their anti-quota agitation considering the Centre's "seriousness" in referring the reservation bill to a parliamentary panel.

A spokesman for Youth for Equality, the umbrella organisation of medicos spearheading the agitation here, said the decision was taken at a meeting here considering the Centre's "seriousness" in referring the reservation bill to a parliamentary committee and also in the interests of patients.

With the suspension of the stir, normal hospital services in the state would resume from tomorrow, after remaining affected for three days due to the strike by medicos.

The spokesman, however, said the suspension of the agitation did not mean that they had changed their stand on the Centre's reservation policy. "We will continue to say no to caste-based reservation," he said.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of medicos, joined by engineering students and those from other educational institutions, formed a "human chain" before holding a rally in Dharmatolla area decrying at Centre's "apathy" to their demand to consider scrapping the new reservation policy, as also the "brutal" lathi-charge on protestors on Friday.

The agitating medicos, who earlier announced they would boycott classes from Monday, said this decision had been changed. "We will attend classes as usual," they added.