Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya urges doctors to call off strike

New Delhi, December 28

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today held a meeting with a delegation of protesting resident doctors and urged them to call off their strike over delay in NEET-PG counselling in the larger interest of the public.

Also read: Protesting doctors, police face-off in Delhi

Following the meeting with the delegation of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association, he said all requisite steps were being taken by the government and a suitable reply with respect to the EWS report would be submitted to the Supreme Court before the scheduled date of hearing on January 6.

“Our resident doctors have been protesting for the last few days over the delay in NEET-PG counselling. I held a meeting with a delegation of the protesting doctors at Nirman Bhawan to resolve the issue,” the minister said.

“We are not able to hold the counselling because the matter is sub judice before the Supreme Court. The Government of India will submit a reply to the apex court before the scheduled date of hearing on January 6. We request the court to expedite the issue so that the counselling can be started at the earliest,” he noted. Mandaviya also expressed gratitude to the resident doctors and health care workers over the exemplary work done by them during the Covid crisis.

Intensifying their stir over the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling, a large number of resident doctors on Tuesday protested on the premises of Centre-run Safdarjung Hospital, even as police personnel were deployed to ensure maintenance of law and order.

The protest, a day earlier had taken a dramatic turn, as medics and police personnel had faced off in streets, with both sides claiming several persons suffered injury in the ensuing melee. — PTI/TNS