NEW DELHI: Demanding justice for deceased optometry student Abhishek Malviya, the paramedical students of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) continued their strike for the 5th day on Wednesday, while one of the protesting students also went on a hunger strike. The students are demanding a hostel for them as they claim that the nearby areas around the institute are expensive and they have to live in faraway places.
“We get only Rs 14,000 as a stipend. Finding a house in the areas around AIIMS is impossible. Because of this, Abhishek was living in Mehrauli and the day he fell sick, the ambulance facility in AIIMS refused to provide an ambulance to him. Had he been living in the hostel, he would have come on his own,” said Anurag Kumar, a third-year student of Optometry at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences, AIIMS.
The students have claimed that hostel superintendent Dr Sandip Aggarwal threatened them by saying “Leave your course or die. Do whatever you want to do. You won’t get a hostel.” The Optometry Students Association (OSA) of Delhi AIIMS has alleged the threat in a press release issued by them.
“Our demand is very simple like hostel facilities for first-year students and freedom from discrimination by AIIMS administration officials. Nursing students get hostel accommodation from the very first day. But no hostel accommodation is being provided to any paramedical students from Optometry, MTR Radiography or Operation Theatre,” said a student participating in the strike.
The victim Abhishek Malviya was a first-year student of Optometry. Six days ago he complained of suffocation and breathing issues. When his friends asked for help, the hospital authorities reportedly denied an ambulance stating that Malviya was not a hostel resident and such services are not supposed to be extended to students residing outside the hospital campus.