AP ordinance to make attack on doctors non-bailable

The Andhra Pradesh Government on Monday stamped its approval on an ordinance making assault on doctors a non-bailable...

The Andhra Pradesh Government on Monday stamped its approval on an ordinance making assault on doctors a non-bailable offence even as junior doctors continued with their state-wide strike.

The ordinance, the first of its kind, makes attacks on doctors, nursing staff or any paramedic a non-bailable offence and the guilty could be sentenced to three years imprisonment.

However, the state Cabinet, which approved the ordinance, refrained from even discussing the doctors8217; demand for security at hospitals.

The junior doctors, meanwhile, did not appear pleased at all. Their leader G Raju asserted: 8220;There is no question of calling off the strike as the Government is yet to deploy Special Police Force SPF at all the teaching hospitals in the state and arrest MIM MLAs Afsar Khan and Ahmed Pasha Quadri.8221;

On the other hand, the Government Doctors8217; Association, which gave a strike call for Monday in support of the junior doctors, called off the stir, satisfied with the promulgation of the ordinance.

In the meantime, the High Court, which had earlier pulled up the protesting doctors, again took a serious view of the ongoing strike and felt the lives of patients are more important than the demands of the doctors. It directed the Government to inform it whether the doctors8217; strike was legal. It also wanted the Government to submit a report by Tuesday on the measures taken to ensure medical care at hospitals. The court advised the Government to outsource medical services, if need be, so that no patient in any hospital suffered.

Despite the High Court strictures, the junior doctors remained unfazed and said they were not feeling safe at hospitals with the MIM handing out threats every other day. They made it clear that unless they see the ordinance published in the state Gazette, they would not believe the Government word, implying that the Government might hoodwink them with empty promises for fear of antagonising the MIM. They are expected to hold talks with the Chief Minister on Tuesday.

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On its part, the MIM, whose legislators sparked off the current stand-off, termed the ordinance a 8220;licence to kill8221; and threatened to launch an agitation until the same is not repealed. On the ground, patients in all Government hospitals were put to inconvenience as the OP services were crippled. In the twin cities, the doctors did not attend to OP duties at the Osmania General Hospital, Gandhi General Hospital and maternity wards at Sultan Bazar and Nayapul and Niloufer hospital.