Maharashtra strike: Over 40K docs to go on mass leave in Delhi

New Delhi: More than 40,000 resident doctors of public hospitals in Delhi will go on leave in support of their counterparts in Maharashtra who are on strike.

Residents doctors from around 40 government hospitals, including those run by civic bodies, will go on mass leave, but those on emergency duty will work, according to the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), an umbrella body of all residents doctors in Delhi.

“The decision has been taken in view of increasing incidents of assaults on doctors and also to show solidarity towards our colleagues in Maharashtra,” FORDA president said.

“Nobody bothers about resident doctors who were brutally beaten up. Instead of providing security to resident doctors at their workplace, the Maharashtra government is threatening them of deducting their salaries and throwing them out of their hostels,” Vijay Gurjar, president of Resident Doctors’ Association of AIIMS, said.

“We, the resident doctors at AIIMS, will work with helmets on in the emergency department tomorrow as well,” he said. In AIIMS, around 1,200 resident doctors turned up for work on Wednesday.

Over 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra have been staying away from work since Monday demanding better security at hospitals in the wake of a string of attacks on their colleagues in the state.

Nearly 40,000 doctors, all members of the Maharash-tra chapter of the Indian Medical Association, too decided to shun work and join the resident doctors in their strike.

On Wednesday, the Maharashtra government ordered the striking doctors to report to duty by Wednesday evening or lose six months’ salary.

Bombay HC Chief Justice Manjula Chellur had on Tuesday said, “If you do not want to work, then resign. You are not factory workers that you will resort to such protests. Shame on you. How can doctors behave in such a manner?”