Bihar became a stricken state on Monday with a state-wide strike of junior doctors and lawyers of lower courts paralysing healthcare and judicial services even as the policemen threatened to begin striking work. The state government fought shy of intervening throughout the day.
The junior doctors’ strike, which began on Sunday night, led to the death of at least ten patients allegedly for lack of enough medical attention and sparked off an exodus of patients from the major government-run hospitals to private nursing homes.
Junior doctors at all the six medical college-cum-hospitals in Bihar went on strike to protest the firing on junior doctors at Gaya’s Anugraha Narayan Magadh Medical College (ANMMC) by Belaganj RJD legislator Dr Surendra Yadav’s bodyguards after a scuffle late on Sunday evening.
Nearly 80,000 lawyers across the state began their two-day strike demanding that evening courts must not begin due to the overload of work and security reasons. The lawyers’ strike affected the functioning of the Patna high court and the civil courts.
Three junior doctors received minor injuries when two of the MLA’s bodyguards fired in his presence during the scuffle between his supporters and a group of junior doctors at ANMCH that originated from a dispute over the doctors referring to Patna’s PMCH a post-delivery woman suffering from Hepatitis B. Angry junior doctors also set afire a police jeep.
The Bihar Junior Doctors’ Association decided to strike work demanding the MLA’s arrest and security arrangements for the doctors. The three injured doctors are out of danger.
The two bodyguards were arrested and put under suspension while Gaya SSP Amit Lodha ordered the arrest of the MLA on Monday following an FIR lodged by the Gaya junior doctors. The police conducted raids at the MLA’s house but failed to locate him. But his bodyguards’ arrest prompted stiff protests from the Bihar Policemen’s Association, which termed it illegal and threatened to go on a state-wide strike from Tuesday.
Chief minister Nitish Kumar being in New Delhi and Bihar health minister Ashwini Choubey busy with the Swasthya Chetna Yatra in Kaimur district, the state government made little efforts to end the doctors’ strike.
After the junior doctors gave the government a 72-hour ultimatum before going on an indefinite strike, Mr Choubey said in a belated appeal that they must “return to your primary work of treating the sick”. The minister also promised that the government would consider bringing a bill in the Assembly’s upcoming session for an Act on security for doctors.