Thousands of doctors across the country will participate in dharnas, hold press meets and submit a memoranda addressed to the Prime Minister to the respective district magistrates on November 16, said IMA national president Dr S S Agarwal. He stated that the dharna was being organized to press the government to intervene and sort out the major problems faced by the medical profession.
In a press note here on Tuesday, Hyderabad unit of Indian Medical Association president Dr Sanjeev Singh Yadav, publicity chairman Dr Mohd Iqbal Jaweed and secretary Dr Srinivaslulu Gattu stated the members of all the 30 State branches and 1,765 local branches of IMA will participate in two-hour dharna as part of NMC satyagraha in every district in the country from 11 am to 1 pm on November 16.
The IMA has been agitating over their six demands. They are: To stop NMC and suitably amend Indian Medical Council Act without compromising the autonomy of the profession; Capping of compensation under Consumer Protection Act; Amendments to abolish licence Raj and exemption to single doctor clinics in Clinical Establishment Act; Punitive punishments only for sex selective abortion and not for clerical errors under PC PNDT Act; A Central Act to protect doctors and hospitals from violence and to prevent unscientific mixing modern medicine and indigenous systems. Scheduled drugs be prescribed only by modern medicine graduates. (NSS)