MP: Junior doctors to continue strike

The talks between the striking junior doctors and Madhya Pradesh government, held here on Sunday, failed ‘forcing’ the doctors to continue their stir.

State medical education minister Vishwas Sarang held discussions with the Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA) here in the afternoon to end the impasse between them after a delegation of JDA met him at his official residence.

However, the talks between them failed with the striking junior doctors refusing to heed to the minister’s pleadings to honour the recent verdict by the Madhya Pradesh high court and call off their seven-dayold strike.

“We will continue our stir as long as the state government does not fulfill our just demands”, JDA president Arvind Meena said after their meeting with the minister.

The minister, however, said he had agreed to meet the junior doctors to end the deadlock despite the fact that no prior appointment was sought by the JDA to meet him.

“I appealed to the striking junior doctors to call off their strike to honour the verdict given by the MP high court on the matter. I told them we are all bound by court’s order and asked them to withdraw their stir and join their duty”, Sarang told reporters. The MP high court was scheduled to resume hearing in the case on Monday.

Earlier, the high court had ordered that the junior doctors end their strike within 24 hours and asked the state government to take stern action against them if they failed to heed to the directive.