SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Mar 6: Before going on an indefinite strike on March 12, seven doctors’ bodies of the state took out a candle march at the headquarters of all the 24 districts in support of their demands on Sunday evening.
This was the second time in 12 months that the doctors of Jharkhand took out a candle march simultaneously across the state. Earlier in March 2022, doctors had taken out a similar type of candle march in protest against the death of Jharkhand doctor Dr Archna Sharma in March 2022 in the Dausa district of Rajasthan.
On Sunday evening in Ranchi, hundreds of doctors from seven bodies including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the Jharkhand Health Service Association (JHSA), the RIMS Teachers Association, the Junior Doctors Association (JDA), the IMA Women’s Wing, the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) and the Chamber of Commerce took out candle march from RIMS to IMA building raising slogans for implementation of their demands.
Doctors took out a similar candle march in Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Dumka, Deoghar, Bokaro, Hazaribag, Ramgarh and other districts across the state in support and solidarity with medicos bodies.
The state IMA secretary Dr Pradip Kumar Singh said that a candle march across the state was taken out to wake up the government to implement the demand of doctors. Leading the agitation, noted eye specialist Dr Bharti Kashyap, national co-chairperson of IMA women’s wing, asked the people of Jharkhand to make a fervent appeal to the government to resolve the problems being facerd by the doctors in Jharkhand.
“If in seven days government failed to heed to our demands, all government and private doctors would proceed on indefinite work boycott after march 12,” she said.
Earlier on March 1, doctors of the state had gone on a day-long work boycott across the state to implement demands.
Action against assaulters of doctors in Hazaribagh, Garhwa, Ranchi, Jamtara, and Dhanbad, implementation Medical Protection Act and exemption of below 50 beds hospitals and single health clinics from the Clinical Establishment Act are the main demands doctors bodies are agitating against.
“Doctors bodies have also demanded compensation to the kin of Dr Hazra of Dhanbad and RIMS senior doctor Dr Saurabh as per government guidelines. Dr Saurabh’s wife must also be given a job,” said IMA state secretary Dr Pradip Kumar.
The doctors’ bodies said medicos do not want to go on strike as they are committed to the service of patients but a series of incidents and assaults on doctors have compelled them to go on agitation.
Now the ball is in the government’s court to create a fearless environment for medicos.
