By IANS,
Lucknow : Striking government doctors in Uttar Pradesh returned to work Monday after police assured them of nabbing the killers of the Lucknow chief medical officer (CMO) who was gunned down while taking a morning walk two days ago.
The decision followed prolonged parleys between the Provincial Medical Service (PMS) Association and two senior ministers of the Mayawati government late Sunday night over the murder of the CMO, B.P. Singh.
“We have simply suspended our strike for 10 days as the state top brass has given a categorical assurance to arrest Singh’s murderers within that period,” PMS Association chief U.N. Rai told reporters here.
The victim was also general secretary of the association.
Doctors had proceeded on an indefinite strike, paralysing all patient services across the 72 districts of the state, to press for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the murder.
Even emergency services and autopsies could not be carried out on account of the strike, causing great difficulties to people.
Singh was the second incumbent in this position to be gunned down within a span of six months. In an almost identical case, then Lucknow CMO (family welfare) Vinod Arya was also shot by masked motorcyclists, just as he stepped out of his home for his morning walk in October 2010.
The award of huge contracts for supply of goods and equipment under the centrally funded National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was stated to be the cause behind both the murders.