AIIMS resident docs wear helmets in support of strike in Maharashtra

Around 1,200 resident doctors of AIIMS here turned up on duty at the emergency department today wearing helmets in support to their striking counterparts in Maharashtra.

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.

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

"We, the resident doctors at AIIMS, are working with helmets on in the emergency department as we do not want to lose our eyesight and life," he said expressed solidarity with the resident doctors of Maharashtra.

There has been no discussion on compensation for the doctors who were victims of attacks in that state. Instead "steps are being taken to defame the profession", he alleged.

The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), an umbrella body of all residents doctors in Delhi, has also extended its support to the striking doctors in Maharashtra.

Today, the Maharashtra government has ordered the striking doctors to report to duty by this evening or lose six months' salary.

Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur had yesterday said, "If you (doctors) 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?"