Lucknow: Four junior doctors attempting to meet UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was visiting Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi, were briefly taken into custody Sunday. The doctors, who were from the medical college, intended to submit a memorandum with a list of demands.
The doctors, who sought to highlight issues of shortages of staff and medicines among other matters, claim the police misbehaved with them. The police, however, said the group was taken to the nearest station and let go soon after.
“They have not been arrested. Actually, their programme to meet CM was not in the schedule. Police were unaware about it and they (the doctors) did not tell us who they were. So, how could one allow them to enter? CM’s security cannot allow any one in such cases. Security breach could have happened … so they (the doctors) were stopped and taken into custody, but police did not misbehave with them. After a few minutes at the nearest police station, they were given permission to go,” said Superintendent of Police (City), Jhansi, Vivek Tripathi.
Jhansi District Magistrate Andra Wamsi later posted a statement on Twitter that read: “These junior doctors were stopped because their meeting with CM was not fixed as per the schedule. We took memorandum from them and will try to consider their demands.”
पूर्व निर्धारित कार्यक्रम के अनुसार सुरक्षा व कानून व्यवस्था बाधित न हो इसलिए सुरक्षा दृष्टिगत जूनियर डॉक्टर को रोका गया था कार्यक्रम उपरांत सम्मानित करते हुए अलग कक्ष में बैठाया और उनका ज्ञापन लेकर मेरे निर्देशन पर उनके उठाए बिंदुओं पर मदद करने का प्रयास किया जा रहा है।
— Dmjhansi (@dmjhansi1) May 23, 2021
Among the four doctors was Dr Hardeep Jogi, president, Resident Doctors’ Association. Speaking to The Print, he alleged the police had misbehaved with them.
“Like every other individual, we too have rights to meet our chief minister. We just wanted to tell (him) about the flaws here. We were not allowed to meet and were also misbehaved with. They (police) took us to station and stopped us for almost two hours,” he said.
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What the doctors are demanding
According to Dr Jogi, one of the main demands of junior doctors is an improvement in the workplace.
“Every time ministers come and go, our basic problems are not given any attention. So, this time we thought that we should go and inform (the CM) ourselves. But we were not allowed to meet CM and we were pushed by the police.”
“We only wanted to do our ‘Mann ki Baat‘ to the honourable CM. We respect him, he is the mukhiya (chief) of the state,” he added.
On the list that the doctors intended to submit to CM Adityanath was a demand for a central medical library in the medical college. The medical college library has been closed for the past 18 months owing to the pandemic.
The group also are asking for an increase in capacity of hostels and a new sports ground on campus.
Further, they claim adequate stocks of necessary medicines at the medical college is low. The doctors have alleged that a stock is only replenished when there is an administrative visit.
They also demanded “good behaviour” from administrative officials towards nursing staff and other health workers. “Video of misbehaviour with residents doctors has also gone viral on social media. Several medical associations including FAIMA condemns such behaviour of cops,” the memorandum reads in Hindi.
Pointing out that they are “frontline workers”, Dr Jogi questioned whether “any doctor or staff working during Covid-19 deserves such misbehaviour in public”.
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