Samajwadi Party MLA from Sardhana, Atul Pradhan, on Monday started a hunger strike outside the collectorate office in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut, alleging that private hospitals in the district were raising inflated bills. Pradhan, the first-time legislator, claimed that his protest was to “highlight the prevailing loot of patients by private hospitals in the district, especially Meeurt town, by way of highly inflated bills”. Soon after the MLA along with his supporters reached there, police personnel were deployed in large numbers at the protest site. Additional District Magistrate Brijesh Singh denied them permission to use a mike to address the gathering. It was when leaders and workers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), youth wing members of the Bar Council of Meerut and members of a teachers' association joined the protesters and raised anti-government slogans that the permission for using mike and cooking food at the site was granted. Ankush Chaudhary, the Meerut district unit chief of AAP, alleged that efforts were being made to muzzle the Opposition voices by the Yogi Adityanath-led government. “But the law enforcers should keep in mind that this is the same place where Chaudhary Mahendra Singh Tikait started his historic indefinite fast in 1988. We will also hold a similar protest if no action is taken on our demands.” Additional City Magistrate Pramod Kumar said, “The MLA has not sought prior permission for the protest, which is illegal. We will try to convince him to call off the protest, and if needed, we will not hesitate to use force to remove him from the protest site. We can allow a symbolic protest for the time being. Still, a longer duration may pose a challenge to the law and order situation in the town.” Also, a team of the Meerut Municipal Corporation late Sunday removed all the hoardings and banners put up by the MLA and his supporters in various parts of the city, appealing to people to join Monday's protest. Pradhan had also inserted thousands of handbills in local newspapers through hawkers on Monday morning, urging people to strengthen his “lone fight”. Meanwhile, the office-bearers of the Meerut chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have announced a counter-protest against alleged “continued harassment and extortion” by the Opposition MLA. A senior doctor, Vishwajeet Bambi, even threatened to immolate himself if the hunger strike by the legislator was not called off soon. “We are not going to sit idle on the issue as growing interference by political leaders into our affairs has jeopardised our day-to-day functioning. Atul Pradhan is an eyesore to the medical fraternity in Meerut as he needles us to extort money,” said Bambi. The row involving the MLA and the doctors has its roots in a November 8 incident when Pradhan and dozens of his supporters stormed into the Nutema Hospital in the city, claiming the health facility had raised an inflated bill of Rs 8 lakh for the delivery of the daughter-in-law of one Jitendra Kumar. The legislator and his supporters forcibly took the patient, her newborn baby, and attendants out of the hospital premises without clearing the bill and even attacked the staff and doctors when they tried to resist their escape, it was alleged. An FIR was lodged against Pradhan, the woman patient, her father-in-law, and more than three dozen unidentified persons. Pradhan, who defeated three-time legislator and BJP heavyweight Thakur Sangeet Som to become the MLA, has nearly 40 cases registered against him at various police stations in Meerut but has not been convicted in any of them so far.
