Hyderabad(IANS) : The junior doctors of government-run hospitals in Andhra Pradesh Wednesday called off their strike after a court threatened penal action against them and ordered police to file contempt of court case against them.
Office-bearers of the Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors Association (APJDA) tendered an apology after the division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Acting Chief Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan admonished them for their attitude and directed police to book them.
About 3,000 junior doctors were on strike since Dec 2 to protest the alleged attack on some doctors by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) legislator Afsar Khan and his supporters.
After APJDA tendered an apology and agreed to withdraw the strike unconditionally, the court assured them their demand for protection at hospitals would be looked into. The bench adjourned the hearing till next Wednesday.
The indefinite strike by the doctors had hit the medical services at government-run hospitals, especially the Niloufer Children’s Hospital.
About 40 children died at the hospital since the strike began. While parents of the children alleged that they died due to lack of medical care, hospital authorities termed the deaths as “routine” and claimed that senior doctors were attending to the patients.
“This is not a cinema theatre,” remarked an angry chief justice when APJDA president G. Raju, who was summoned by the court, insisted that the doctors be first provided protection. He was responding to the court’s order to the doctors to first withdraw the strike and then raise their demands.
The high court Tuesday took a serious view of the junior doctors’ strike and summoned APJDA president. Angry over APJDA continuing the strike despite a warning last week, the bench warned that it would ask the police to arrest them and direct the Indian Medical Council to cancel their registration.
The court, which was hearing a public interest petition, said the doctors could not act like trade unions and it was their responsibility to take care of the patients. It noted that the defiant attitude of the junior doctors in continuing the strike was causing loss of lives of innocent and helpless children.
The junior doctors were demanding a law to provide protection to them at all hospitals, registration of an attempt to murder case against the legislator, his arrest and disqualification from the assembly. Several rounds of talks between the striking doctors and the state government had failed to break the deadlock.
The legislator, who represents the Karwan constituency in the state capital and was also involved in the attack on controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen here in August, had allegedly assaulted doctors during an argument over the alleged negligence by the doctors in treatment of daughter of a MIM worker on Dec 2.
Afsar Khan was Dec 2 arrested on charges of assaulting the doctors but was released on the same day.
The state government had rejected the demand for booking Khan for attempt to murder. However, on a petition by a doctor, a lower court on Dec 6 directed police to book the legislator and 29 others for attempt to murder.
Four supporters of the legislator were arrested by the police Tuesday.