SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, December 29: After the assurance of Deputy Commissioner (DC) Barun Ranjan and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hardeep P. Janardhanan, private hospitals here today have called off their proposed three–day strike from tomorrow (December 30) against extortion demand from a doctor.
At a meeting between the district administration and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) representatives at the collectorate, the DC and the SSP assured complete protection to doctors and their establishments (hospitals) from criminals.
Allaying the fear of doctors, the DC and the SSP told the IMA representatives that criminals are entirely wiped out. Either they are behind bars or have deserted the region. “Some of their sleeper cell members are trying to create ‘Fear Factor’ by serving such extortion demand for survival,” said DC Barun Ranjan.
At the meeting, besides the DC and SSP, City SP Vijay Kumar, ADM (law and Order) Kamlakant Gupta, and Civil surgeon Dr Chandrabhanu Pratapan were from the district administration side. IMA state president Dr AK Singh, district president Dr Major Chandan, vice-president Dr Pranaya Purvey and treasurer Dr Rakesh Inder Singh represented private hospitals.
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“Since the administration assured full security, there was no need to go on three days’ strikes. So, we called off the strike,” said Dr Rakesh Inder Singh after the meeting.
Notably, the IMA district chapter had called a three-day (December 30 to January 1) strike of Dhanbad’s private hospitals, nursing homes, and health clinics in protest of police inaction against criminals who demanded extortion from doctors.
Criminals had on December 22 demanded Rs 1 crore from Dr Sarvmangla Prasad, operator of Sarvmangla Hospital, as extortion.
The IMA district chapter had earlier announced an indefinite strike from December 30. But after the transfer of senior superintendent of police (SSP) Sanjiv Kumar, the medicos’ body reduced the call to a three-day strike.
The State IMA had also taken extortion demands from doctors seriously. State IMA president Dr AK Singh and secretary Dr Pradip Kumar Singh had shot off a letter to Chief Minister Hemant Soren for his intervention in providing security to doctors of Dhanbad against criminals.
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