HYDERABAD: Inspite of Director of Medical Education (DME) Telangana, threatening to debar the protesting Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA) members, who have been on strike since September 29, unfazed TJUDA members continued to protest demanding abolishment of the one-year mandatory rural service that the government has imposed on them.
“We are not afraid of being debarred or suspended. Let him debar us if he has the guts,” quipped TJUDA president G Srinivas on Tuesday. “Today all student organisations, state organisations, political parties and intellectuals are supporting us. Hence, we will continue our movement as we believe in it and we aren’t scared of the DME’s threats,” he added.
Earlier on Tuesday, Congress party president Ponnala Lakshmaiah shot off a letter to Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, asking him to be sympathetic towards the TJUDAs cause. “This has reference to the enclosed representation of the Junior Doctors Association of Telangana, regarding recruitment of specialists on regular basis and other issues related to them. The representation is self-explanatory and deserves sympathetic consideration,” Lakshmaiah stated in the letter.
Ironically, it was the Kiran Kumar Reddy led Congress government which had introduced the controversial GO in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, making rural service mandatory for junior doctors.
Spurred by the support from other political parties, junior doctors vow to continue their strike.
According to G Srinivas, the matter is likely to be brought up in the Assembly by members of other political parties. Spewing venom on DME Telangana for threatening junior doctors, he said, “He has time to organise press meets but does not have time to discuss our issues. If mandatory rural service is imposed, generations of doctors will suffer as patients require permanent doctors and not those who stay on a temporary basis like the government is suggesting,” Srinivas added.