Junior docs’ stir continues; outside hospitals this time

Hyderabad: Despite all out efforts by the authorities including issuing a threat that Telangana State government would not hesitate to implement GO 1022 if the junior doctors did not call off their strike, the Junior Doctors’ Association (JUDA) on Friday announced that they would continue with their protests.

The JUDAs said the government had threatened to invoke GO 1022 if they carried out strike within the premises of the hospitals or medical colleges and hence they had now decided to hold protests on roads outside the government hospitals.

The GO 1022 prohibits junior doctors from staging strikes inside the premises of a medical college or hospital. Medicos cannot go on strike unless they take prior permission of the Head of the Institution - college or hospital, as per the GO.

On Friday, junior doctors gathered in front of the Osmania Medical College at Koti and started shouting slogans against the State government.

Police entered the scene and vacated the entrance gate of the medical college by removing the medicos. The medicos then shifted the venue of protest from the entrance gate to the steps of the college. According to Dr G Srinivas, president JUDA, they had no alternative but to continue with their agitation as the government was not showing interest in resolving the issues. He said that seven medicos were continuing their fast even after police got their tent vacated.