According to doctors, they had withdrawn the strike and would work under protest for the next seven days but reserved the right to go on strike again in case the necessities were not made available.
“In the interest of public and patients, GARD committee and residents have decided to call off the strike immediately with effect from 11.30 am on 14/8/2014 but work under protest for a period of 7 days. If the demands for basic necessities, list of which has been submitted to concerned authorities, are not met, as assured by dean we will take further action and not hesitate to go on strike again,” a communiqué from the 200 residents to Herald says.
However, even after the resident doctors had clearly stated in the strike notice and told media that they were facing problems for the past eight months, with the last three months being acute, the Health Minister Laxmikant Parsekar told the House that it was not such a big issue. He said, “it was found that one pipe was short, so water was not going into the tank; the PWD had also found that one pipeline was thin and would repair it”.
Parsekar, admitted that a strike call had indeed been given. He said the doctors had given a notice saying, “…due to this indifferent attitude of the concerned authorities towards the most basic necessities of resident doctors, we doctors are left with no choice, but to take the drastic step… we wanted to avoid till date after issuing the 24 hour ultimatum…”
