AIIMS doctors to get their degrees on Sep 25

NEW DELHI: Resident doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), who are on a strike demanding their degrees, will get their certificates in a convocation ceremony on September 25.

The decision was taken during a meeting between Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and AIIMS Director P Venugopal here on Wednesday.

"The degrees will be awarded at a convocation on September 25, which is the institute's day," health ministry sources.

In the meeting, it is learnt that the minister told the cardiac surgeon that there was "no need for resorting to gimmicks" as the doctors are "responsible to the public."

"He made it clear that the public should not be put to stress due to the strike," sources said.

The minister is understood to have also told the director that he should take "strict action against the agitating doctors who are inciting and resorting to strike".

"The director told the minister that he has already met the agitating doctors three times already. He sought the minister's help in awarding the degrees. It was mutually decided that the convocation should be held on September 25 where the degrees will be awarded," sources said.

Resident doctors had gone on a indefinite strike on Tuesday night protesting non-allotment original degree certificates for the passouts in the past three years.

After meeting with the health minister, Venugopal said, "For the patients' care and their welfare, the minister wants everything should be normal and the students want everything should be functional.

"You don't have to worry," he said.