Assam doctors abstain from work to protest colleague's killing

Doctors in Assam were on a 24-hour strike on Tuesday to protest the assault on an elderly colleague at a tea garden that led to his death, officials said.

Emergency services have been kept out of the purview of the stir.

Seventy three-year-old Dr Deben Dutta had succumbed to his injuries after being assaulted by relatives of a tea garden worker who died while undergoing treatment at a hospital at Teok Tea Estate in Jorhat district on Saturday.

Responding to a call by the Assam unit of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), doctors at government and private hospitals as well as consultation chambers stayed away from work from 6 am but attended emergency services, health department officials said.

The stir affected services in six government medical college hospitals and civil hospitals, family referral units and primary health centres. The doctors attended on patients in the emergency and casualty departments, they said..

Doctors of Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) took out a procession here to protest the attack, demanding justice for the slain doctor and security for medicos.

They also staged sit-ins at several medical institutions.

One of participant doctors said, "We demand a permanent solution to attacks on medicos on duty."