05-22-2006, 07:43 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>No quota, says India </b>
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
UP Govt invokes ESMA, fails to bring medicos back ---- The striking medicos of Delhi have become a symbol of the anti-quota protest, and the spark that they lit up is spreading like forest fire across the country. Every day more and more youth from different parts of the nation are joining the peaceful mass movement that has found wide support from the intelligentsia, academicians, and industry barons.Â
As the deadlock over the anti-quota agitation continued on Sunday in Delhi with students <b>and junior doctors rejecting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal to end their agitation and sticking to their demand for total rollback of the proposed OBC quota move, the anti-agitation stir picked up in other States.</b>
While the medicos of Delhi refused to be cowed down under the threats of suspension of termination of services, elsewhere in the country the protestors were equally defiant.
<b>In Lucknow, the striking doctors refused to join duty despite the State Government invoking Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against them</b>.
The services of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) doctors, who did not return to their duties within 24 hours, would be terminated and legal action would be taken against them, Chief Secretary Navin Chandra Bajpai said at a meeting in Lucknow.
<b>Doctors, however, remained adamant and said they would not return to the OPDs. "We are against any move to impose OBC quota and condemn brutal lathicharge on our colleagues in Mumbai. We will not work in OPDs to mark our protest,"</b> said Himanshu Goel, an office-bearer of the resident doctors association of SGPGIMS.
In Kolkata, the anti-quota relay hunger strike by medicos gathered momentum on the third day on Sunday when Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, students and guardians of those appearing in the Joint Entrance Examination joined the stir in West Bengal.
Expressing solidarity with the countrywide agitation against reservation, junior doctors and housestaff of different medical colleges continued to boycott classes and sat on dharna at the Calcutta National Medical College. However, emergency services and outpatient departments were not affected.
Under the banner of 'Youth for Equality', the agitators were joined by students who appeared in the JEE conducted on Sunday and their guardians in a silent protest rally from CNMC to the Park Street area of the metropolis.
In Mumbai, medical associations protesting against OBC quota in elite educational institutes rejected the proposal of a Group of Ministers to increase seats along with introduction of reservations.
"We resolved that we would oppose reservations at any cost," said Ashish Tiwari of Indian Medical Association (IMA) after IMA's Mumbai branch held a joint meeting of various medical organisations.
Last week's police lathi-charge on protesting medical students near the Governor's residence was also condemned at the meeting held at Bombay Hospital here and attended by over thousand people. Later, participants at the meeting took out a protest march upto Azad Maidan.
In Bangalore, medicos protesting against proposed reservation for OBCs in elite institutions on Sunday held a candlelight procession in the city. They also formed a human-chain later.
<b>In Jaipur, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley alleged that the UPA Government's proposal to provide reservation for OBCs is "politically motivated" and is "aimed at dividing the society". "Government's effort is to divide the society rather than helping the OBCs," Jaitley told reporters here. Replying to a query on the ongoing anti-quota protests by medicos, he said: "The Government's proposal (on reservation for OBCs) is not on the drawing board, it is in the media." "Let the Government come out with a concrete proposal for reservation for OBCs in educational institutions, the BJP will discuss it,"</b> he said.
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Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
UP Govt invokes ESMA, fails to bring medicos back ---- The striking medicos of Delhi have become a symbol of the anti-quota protest, and the spark that they lit up is spreading like forest fire across the country. Every day more and more youth from different parts of the nation are joining the peaceful mass movement that has found wide support from the intelligentsia, academicians, and industry barons.Â
As the deadlock over the anti-quota agitation continued on Sunday in Delhi with students <b>and junior doctors rejecting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal to end their agitation and sticking to their demand for total rollback of the proposed OBC quota move, the anti-agitation stir picked up in other States.</b>
While the medicos of Delhi refused to be cowed down under the threats of suspension of termination of services, elsewhere in the country the protestors were equally defiant.
<b>In Lucknow, the striking doctors refused to join duty despite the State Government invoking Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against them</b>.
The services of Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) doctors, who did not return to their duties within 24 hours, would be terminated and legal action would be taken against them, Chief Secretary Navin Chandra Bajpai said at a meeting in Lucknow.
<b>Doctors, however, remained adamant and said they would not return to the OPDs. "We are against any move to impose OBC quota and condemn brutal lathicharge on our colleagues in Mumbai. We will not work in OPDs to mark our protest,"</b> said Himanshu Goel, an office-bearer of the resident doctors association of SGPGIMS.
In Kolkata, the anti-quota relay hunger strike by medicos gathered momentum on the third day on Sunday when Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, students and guardians of those appearing in the Joint Entrance Examination joined the stir in West Bengal.
Expressing solidarity with the countrywide agitation against reservation, junior doctors and housestaff of different medical colleges continued to boycott classes and sat on dharna at the Calcutta National Medical College. However, emergency services and outpatient departments were not affected.
Under the banner of 'Youth for Equality', the agitators were joined by students who appeared in the JEE conducted on Sunday and their guardians in a silent protest rally from CNMC to the Park Street area of the metropolis.
In Mumbai, medical associations protesting against OBC quota in elite educational institutes rejected the proposal of a Group of Ministers to increase seats along with introduction of reservations.
"We resolved that we would oppose reservations at any cost," said Ashish Tiwari of Indian Medical Association (IMA) after IMA's Mumbai branch held a joint meeting of various medical organisations.
Last week's police lathi-charge on protesting medical students near the Governor's residence was also condemned at the meeting held at Bombay Hospital here and attended by over thousand people. Later, participants at the meeting took out a protest march upto Azad Maidan.
In Bangalore, medicos protesting against proposed reservation for OBCs in elite institutions on Sunday held a candlelight procession in the city. They also formed a human-chain later.
<b>In Jaipur, BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley alleged that the UPA Government's proposal to provide reservation for OBCs is "politically motivated" and is "aimed at dividing the society". "Government's effort is to divide the society rather than helping the OBCs," Jaitley told reporters here. Replying to a query on the ongoing anti-quota protests by medicos, he said: "The Government's proposal (on reservation for OBCs) is not on the drawing board, it is in the media." "Let the Government come out with a concrete proposal for reservation for OBCs in educational institutions, the BJP will discuss it,"</b> he said.
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