MARD to hold peaceful protest

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) on Wednesday assured the Bombay high court that instead of going on strike, doctors would protest in a peaceful manner to get resident doctors’ demands fulfilled. The lawyer representing MARD made the statement before a division bench headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka as the bench had, on last date of hearing, asked MARD to clear its stand on the strike.

MARD, in an affidavit filed before the court, said it had withdrawn its strike after the government reconstituted the Grievances Redressal Committee to be headed by a retired judge on the HC’s direction. Doctors had gone on strike to demand transfer of Dr T.P. Lahane, Dean, J.J. Hospital, for not allowing them to perform surgeries.

The association contended that under the Constitution of the country, it had a right to protest peacefully for their demands. During hearing, MARD’s lawyer raised several other issues, including safety of doctors and their awful working conditions.

The court bench said that there had been five incidents of assault on doctors by relatives after the patients in question died during treatment. MARD’s lawyer alleged that the state government had failed to give protection to doctors. MARD reiterated that the government should take appropriate steps to provide adequate security to resident doctors.

Following this, the court asked acting advocate general Rohit Dev to file an affidavit before June 10 and inform the court as to what measures the state government proposed to take to protect resident doctors from attacks by relatives of patients who died during medical treatment.

MARD, through its lawyer, also raised the issue that the state government needs to improve working conditions of doctors as they often contract diseases like tuberculosis while treating patients.