Sporting black badges, junior doctors staged a novel protest by walking backwards as their strike entered the seventh day on Thursday.
About 800 medicos, including undergraduates, house surgeons and senior residents maintained that the government was taking a ‘retrograde’ step by remaining indifferent to their demands. Mandatory issuance of registration certificate soon after completion of their course to enable them practice medicine was among their major demands. They raised slogans against the government for not crediting their enhanced stipend and not making the needed budgetary allocation for the purpose.
Over 1,000 outpatients who visit the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) every day were put through a lot of hardship following their stir. The medicos, however, attended to emergency medical cases on Thursday. “We will have no option but to boycott such cases from Friday if the government does not concede our just demands,” said Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors Association State general secretary Vamsi Krishna.
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Kurnool Special Correspondent adds: Junior doctors agitating for a hike in stipend and prompt disbursal, staged a protest by sweeping the government hospital premises here.