Taking suo motu cognisance of the strike of junior Government doctors across the State, the lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday directed the State Government to conduct a judicial enquiry and transfer senior police officers, including the SSP, Kanpur with immediate effect.
In compliance with the court order, the State Government invoked ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) against the striking medicos asking them to resume work immediately.
Junior doctors of King George’s Medical University and Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences ceased work and paralysed the entire patient care system. Over 30 to 40 deaths have been reported from the last two days.
The Bench comprising Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya observed that the apparent cause of strike was the alleged misbehaviour by an
M lA from Kanpur, who had ill-treated junior doctors and senior and juniors residents of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College, Kanpur. “The State Government seems to have turned a blind eye towards the situation,” the court observed.
The court directed senior advocate, JN Mathur, to assist the court as amicus curiae and asked Additional Advocate General Bulbul Godiyal to apprise the State Government of the concerns of the court in regard to the strike and its fallout.
The court appointed Retired High Court judge Justice RM Chauhan to conduct a judicial inquiry and submit the report within a period of three weeks. The court also came down heavily on striking doctors and asked them to call off the strike immediately.
A Government spokesman told The Pioneer that as per the directives of the High Court order, the Government has decided to invoke ESMA against the striking junior doctors. “We again appeal to the doctors to return to work immediately and attend to the ailing patients,” the spokesman said.
The strike of the junior doctors entered its fifth day on Wednesday bringing the health services to a screeching halt. The doctors of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College in Kanpur were beaten up mercilessly by police when some of them had an argument with the ruling party legislator from Aryan Nagar, Irfan Solanki. The junior doctors of GSVM College had entered into a flash strike which made ripples in Agra, lucknow, Gorakhpur, Varanasi and Etawah districts.