Resident docs to resume nationwide strike against NEET PG counseling delay, to withdraw from all regular and emergency services

New Delhi, Dec 16 (FN Agency) With no concrete efforts visible by the Centre to expedite the counseling of NEET PG, resident doctors have again called out a nationwide strike at government hospitals boycotting all services including emergency from Friday onwards, Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), announced on Thursday. According to the FORDA which is spearheading the campaign, key hospitals in Delhi like Centre-run Safdarjung, Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals and Delhi Government-run GTB and LNJP will join the strike from 9 AM tomorrow. Meanwhile, large government hospitals like Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University in Uttar Pradesh and other states are also joining the strike, Dr Manish, President of FORDA told UNI. After running for a week, the strike against the delay in NEET PG 2021 counseling was stalled on December 9 after assurance from the Union Health Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) about early hearing of the matter in the Supreme Court.

The FORDA said the resumption of services at the hospitals will not be started until the matter is listed for early hearing in the Supreme Court. The SC had earlier given a date of January 6 to hear the matter. Besides, the Supreme Court of India will be closed till January 1 2022 for Christmas & New Year holiday starting Saturday this week, according to the website of the apex court. However, FORDA hopes to force the government to file an application for an emergency hearing of the matter amid the winter break of the SC. “The only option left (for the government) is to ask SC for an emergency hearing because we have been pleading for counseling for a long time. The academic session for the resident doctors is already delayed for a year. We are working on our one-third capacity. The government should be sensitive towards the grievances of those whom they hail as frontline workers,” Dr Manish said.