Orissa doctors resign en masse

Jarika, Bhagaban Soy and Mukta Bankira. The state government last month dismissed anaesthesiologist Bibek Swain, surgeon Santanu Sahu and orthopaedic specialist Anup Nath Sharma, after the Orissa Human Rights Commission said that there had been no need to cut off the palms of the victims.

The three doctors said they had done so following directions from administration and police officials to help preserve the identity of those killed.

The Commission said that a body cannot be denied the right to a 8220;decent burial8221;. 8220;The medical officers who are public servants committed professional misconduct in dismembering the limbs of the dead in course of postmortem examination on the plea of want of identification, which is not tenable,8221; it said in a report. It said the disarticulation at the wrist joints of both hands of each body for preservation of palms and fingers for identification purpose wa neither supported by any rule nor by any authority.

The medical fraternity had registered its protest on Diwali by observing a 8216;black day8217;. 8220;The serving doctors were only carrying out orders of the government officials. The dismissal of the doctors is only meant to save others8217; skins,8221; said Mishra.