Some faculty members and students from leading government medical colleges in the city today held a protest against the "denial" of reservations in various medical institutions in the country.
The protesting doctors and students from AIIMS, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Maulana Azad Medical College and Vardhaman Mahaveer Medical College (VMCC) demanded that those responsible for denial of reservation should face criminal prosecution.
"The reservation policy is not properly implemented in various institutions. The gross under representation of SC, ST and OBC in medical institutes clearly suggest that infraction of reservation roster is not only confined to AIIMS.
"We therefore, demand that deliberate and willful denial of reservation through dubious manipulations be made a criminal offence, and those found responsible for the crime be dealt with deterrent punishment," said members of Forum for Rights and Equality and Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum of AIIMS.
During the protest at the Jantar Mantar, the protesting doctors highlighted the numerous ways in which the provision of reservations was being defeated in practice by "resorting to manipulation of rules."
They emphasised that if there can be penal provisions for even minor violation of traffic rules, "why should such a gross and criminal violation of constitutional norms go unpunished."
"Such a conspiracy by those opposed to reservations can only be defeated by building wider struggles for protecting the interests of the weaker sections of the society in which all the democratic elements from all castes and strata of society need to be involved," a speaker said.
Later, a two-member delegation submitted a memorandum to the President, calling upon him to take up this issue with the new government to be sworn in later in May.
