Private medical doctors from across the state on Monday staged an agitation near Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi, opposing what they term the draconian Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Bill.
Over 25,000 doctors from across the state are planning to go on a hunger strike. The doctors under the banner of Indian Medical Association objecting to the provisions to imprison doctors for alleged mistreatment, to cap prices for various kinds of services and to form a new patient grievance redressal forum at the district level.
With private hospital keeping OPD shut, pregnant women, senior citizens, differently abled and follow up patients after surgeries, who had arrived at hospitals, were put to great inconveniences. Many hospitals have put up notices informing the people about the doctors’ strike at the entrance.
The 10-day winter session of Karnataka legislature has begun on Monday. Meanwhile, JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy visited the protest site and expressed his solidarity with the agitating doctors.
Security heightened
The district administration has imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC, the agitators are barred from holding demonstrations within 1 km radius of Suvarna Vidhana Soudha.
The police have erected a pandal near Suvarna Garden for the agitations. Police security has been heightened at the protest site near the Soudha.
Protests galore
The farmers under the banner of Rajya Raitha Sangha, the Action Committee for landless and homeless are holding protests near Suvarna Soudha.
Kannada activists staged a protest at Rani Channamma Circle here, protesting Maha Melav organised by Maharashtra Ekikaran Samithi (MES).
The Kannada activists demanded that MES be banned and its leaders should be externed from the state. The police detained the agitators and released after a while.
