Crackdown begins: 6 doctors arrested
ORDER High court asks striking doctors to resume work JAIPUR:
As the strike by government doctors entered the fifth day on Friday, the state government began a crackdown under the Rajasthan Essential Services Maintenance Act (RESMA) and arrested six doctors from different parts of the state.
Police said two doctors each from Bharatpur and Jhalawar, one each from Sawai Madhopur and Tonk districts were arrested under RESMA on Friday.
Health minister Kali Charan Saraf, who has been holding talks with the striking doctors’ representatives, said that if the doctors don’t return to work by 7 pm on Friday, action will be taken. He blamed the obduracy of All Rajasthan In-Service Doctors Association (ARISDA) for the deadlock.
He said the government agreed to their “fair demands” on Thursday night when ARISDA president Dr Ajay Choudhary raised the issue of resident doctors. (Resident doctors of state medical colleges joined the strike on Thursday to show solidarity.)
The minister said the issue of resident doctors was not in the list of demands and was raised without information.
Showing two envelopes with Ajay Choudhary as the sender, the minister said the doctors had sent blank papers in the name of resignation, refuting doctors’ claim of mass resignation.
The minister said he was aware that despite alternative arrangements, patients are facing problems at hospitals across the state. But he ruled out any death due to the strike.
In another development, the Rajasthan high court directed doctors to resume work and asked the government to ensure that the strike ends.
The high court heard a PIL filed by advocates Abhinav Sharma and Anand Sharma and issued notices to the health principal secretary, director general of police, Dr Ajay Choudhary, Dr Durga Shankar Saini and secretary of the Medical Council of Rajasthan asking why no action has been taken against the striking doctors. Justice KS Jhaveri directed the state government to ensure compliance of an order passed by the court in September 2012. The court had then held that the strike call given by Dr Ajay Choudhary and others in 2011 was unconstitutional and illegal.
The bench directed the state to identify doctors on strike and provide the list to the court on November 15, the next date of hearing.