MBBS doctors from government medical colleges in Haryana finally called off their almost two month-long strike today, December 24. The students say that all their demands have been met for the present.
The state-wide protests started due to the introduction of a much-criticised bond policy. And after a meeting with Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the students continued their protest demanding that the promised changes in the policy be published in a gazetted notification. The said notification was published on December 21. However, the protests did not cease as students wanted a few other issues to be addressed.
They were asking that they be given a relaxation in attendance in order to be eligible to write their upcoming exams. The students also demanded that the FIRs registered against some of them be withdrawn and the pending salaries of the Resident Doctors who joined the protests in support of them be released. "Today, our college administration gave in writing that they would resolve these issues," said Priya Kaushik, a student from PGIMS (Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences) Rohtak.
"Necessary changes have been made in the bond policy and the new policy is going to give relief to the students, this has been possible due to the hard work of all," reads a statement from Dr Ankit Gulia, President of the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) at PGIMS. The statement adds that the students' exams will be postponed.
"The protest has gone on for long and our academics have suffered. We now want to focus on our studies and write our exams well," said Akash Singh, another student from PGIMS.
