By IANS,
Chandigarh : Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav will be the chief guest at the 31st annual convocation of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here Friday.
It would be a rare opportunity for Yadav, 62, to attend the convocation at his alma mater as the chief guest. He had done his post-graduation in internal medicine from the PGIMER in 1985.
Yadav did his MBBS from the Calcutta Medical College. He was sworn-in the first president of Nepal in July 2008. His elder son Chandra Mohan Yadav and daughter-in-law also have ciompleted their post-graduation in radio diagnosis from PGIMER.
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will preside over the convocation function. Chandigarh Police have made elaborate security arrangements to ensure smooth conduct of this event.
However, patients will have a tough time as the PGIMER’s operation theatre technical staff association went on strike for three days from Thursday.
Everyday around 300 surgeries are conducted at the PGIMER and this strike would severely affect the operations.
“The issue of increasing the salaries of operation theatre technicians is pending for the last many months. Therefore, we have decided to go on three-day mass casual leave. However, 10 technicians would be available for the emergency services,” said Manoj Kumar, secretary of Operation Theatre Technical Staff Association.
PGIMER officials have termed the strike as illegal.
“We have already forwarded this matter to the union health ministry so there is no point in going on strike. We would make alternate arrangements to avoid harassment to the public,” a PGIMER official said.