CNN-IBN
New Delhi, Jun 1: Resident doctors of three Government colleges in Delhi on Wednesday decided to end their strike against the new reservation proposal.
Doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Maulana Azad Medical College and University College of Medical Sciences will return to work on Thursday. Government doctors in Karnataka, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh too are returning to work.
Students of Lady Hardinge Medical College in Delhi will return to classes on Thursday, but students of other medical colleges in the Capital however plan to continue their strike.
Doctors said they are against the plan to introduce 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in educational institutions, but are returning to work because of the Supreme Court warning.
"We will resume duties at 0800 hours in deference to the Supreme Court directive. Our agitation will continue," said a spokesman for the AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association.
A national coordination committee comprising representatives of medical colleges, IITs and several other educational institutions will be formed to lead the agitation.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday again asked them to call off the strike and restore health services immediately. Doctors and medical students had a six-hour long meeting with legal experts at AIIMS after that.
The Union Health Ministry announced in the day that it was ready with termination notices if doctors decided to continue the strike. The Ministry also threatened to recruit new doctors on permanent basis.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss welcomed the doctors’ decision. "Good that the doctors at AIIMS are going back to work. I hope that medicos at other colleges would also follow. We hope that normalcy would be restored by Thursday morning," he said.
No action would be taken against doctors who join duty by Thursday morning. "But if somebody does not join by 9 o'clock, we will definitely take action against them," he said.
Junior doctors of Karnataka Government Hospitals joined work on Wednesday. Except in Davangere, medicos returned to work in the state. Medical students too began attending classes throughout the state. Junior doctors in Mysore returned to OPD wards after 10 days, but continued their relay hunger strike.
Junior doctors in West Bengal ended their strike and medical students said they would return to classes on Monday.
In Madhya Pradesh, junior doctors announced they are ending their strike.