Hundreds of resident doctors, who had been boycotting work for 14 days to protest the delay in NEET-PG counselling, called off their strike on Friday.
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“The strike has been called off and the doctors will join duty at 12 p.m. today [Friday]. We had a detailed discussion with the police, and they assured us to withdraw all punitive actions, including the FIR,” Dr. Kulsaurabh Kaushik, general secretary of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), said.
On Monday, the protesting doctors were marching towards the Supreme Court when they were stopped by the police near ITO. FORDA said that the doctors were “brutally thrashed, dragged, and detained” by the police, but the latter refuted the allegation.
Later, the police registered an FIR of rioting, causing obstruction to duty of police personnel, and damaging public property against the doctors. Following this, FORDA demanded an apology from Delhi Police and also cancellation of the FIR.
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On Tuesday afternoon, members of FORDA met the Union Health Minister, but talks were inconclusive and the protest continued.
The counselling is delayed as cases are pending in the Supreme Court over reservation for the economically weaker section.
Announcing withdrawal of the protest, FORDA said in a statement that at Tuesday’s meeting the Minister had agreed to submit a report to the Supreme Court before January 6 when it will hear the matter and to publish the NEET-PG 2021 counselling schedule after the hearing.
Despite this, the strike went on and the decision to end the boycott was taken after the Delhi police assured them to cancel the FIR.
“A series of meetings of FORDA representatives with Delhi Police officials was held on Thursday. They police said that they were well aware of the hardships of doctors and as earlier, they were willing to cooperate with the medical fraternity in any issue. They also assured that the complaint against the resident doctors would be taken care of as per the legal procedure,” the statement said.
Doctors had been boycotting work mainly at the Central Government-run Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital, and Lady Hardinge and the Delhi Government-run LNJP and GTB hospitals.