HYDERABAD: A team consisting of political representatives and members of student organisations, headed by MLC Prof K Nageshwar will give a representation to chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday on junior doctors’ demands, D Vinay, a Junior Doctors’ Association JAC member has said. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with members of political parties on Wednesday at the Gandhi Hospital, he said the team would also contain members of student organisations. “The team will submit a representation on the doctors, demands to Kiran Reddy on Thursday,” he added. Meanwhile, the junior doctors’ indefinite fast reached the eighth day on Wednesday.
Doctors had shifted four fasting medicos to ICU on Tuesday evening and they were given intravenous fluids as they were refusing to take food orally. The condition of others who are on hunger strike has also become critical. Another 12 members joined the indefinite fast on Wednesday evening to extend support to their colleagues. Earlier, the TJAC convener Prof M Kodandaram, Loksatta president and MLA Jayaprakash Narayan and other political leaders visited the hospital and extended their support.
About 750 junior doctors are participating in the strike, where junior doctors from the Gandhi and Osmania medical colleges have been joined by colleagues from other medical colleges in Visakhapatnam, Guntur, Vijayawada, Kakinada, Tirupati, Anantapur, Warangal and Kurnool. The talks with government officials remain deadlocked with the government offering only a hike of Rs 5,000 in stipend against the doctors demand of increasing it to Rs 40,000