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IGGMCH resident doctors threaten to go on strike, ask dean for relaxation in COVID-19 duties citing academic loss

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) of the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH), Nagpur, has written to the dean of IGGMCH threatening to go on a strike if public health department doctors are not appointed for COVID-19 duties at the hospital. The resident doctors have cited academic loss and also made some other demands.

A letter written by the association to the dean read:

We the resident doctors (medical postgraduate trainee) of Maharashtra under DMER have bene working tirelessly since the past one year to aid the war against COVID-19, since it is a pandemic, with a very heavy public health toll. We worked hard during the peak of pandemic and dedicated ½ to 1/3rd of our training period towards the efforts against the pandemic, since these were extenuating circumstances. We have tried to fulfill our responsibilities as doctors to the best of our abilities but it should not be forgotten that we are students too. We are here to be trained as specialist doctors in various fields.

This training is not irreversibly hampered due to the repeated shift in COVID wards. We have a training period of 3 years to become a competent specialist doctor. More than third of that time has been spent working in COVID wards. If this continues, we are afraid we won’t have the necessary skills and competency needed by the end of our training period. We are supposed to be here to be trained in our respective fields but we are being shunted to fill the gaps in our public health system. All resident doctors irrespective of their specialties have been working in COVID wards instead of their own departments.

Resident doctors are being used as stopgap solution and have been shouldering the burden the COVID doing every minute thing related to patient care. Work that should be done by doctors under the employ of public health department, is being done by students. This is a tremendous waste of human resources and is a ticking timebomb as this decision will lead to a generation of inadequately trained specialist? doctors and will leave our health care system in even worse shape than at present.

A year into the pandemic, we hope our government is better equipped to handle the challenges that are being faced. Instead of turning medical colleges and hospitals which are tertiary care centers into dedicated COVID hospitals, they should be used for patients that actually need specialist care. Trainee specialist doctors are beign forced to work in general practioner roles which is detrimental to all parties involved; that is the trainee doctors, the patients and the limited health care facilities that we have.

Doctors employed by the public health department could take over the day-to-day patient care, while resident doctors can be posted in supervisory roles. The administration has comfortably and conveniently ignored the well being of resident doctors as is evident from the fact that initially only the resident doctors were recruited for COVID services. Only when the patient load increased, were the MOs appointed, and as soon as the situation was under control the MOs were relieved of the COVID duty instead of relieving the residents so that they could continue with their academics.

On top of being forced to work in general practitioner roles, trainee specialist doctors have had to face bureaucratic hurdles too. Too add insult to injury, trainee doctors who have been at the frontline against the pandemic have received no exemption with regards to the fees to be paid for the academic year, a year where their academics suffered at the cost of COVID duties. No exemption has been provided for thesis submission either which is grossly unfair. Our tertiary care center was converted to dedicated COVID care center which further reduced the flow of patients that would usually seek health care there. The patient, who ends up here for treatment also suffer due to this, as most of the resources are diverted to COVID wards leaving general wards without bare necessities and medications.

Things done:

1. We have served as frontline workers since the start of the pandemic irrespective of our respective specialization and even when treatment protocols were not fixed.

2. We were provided extremely poor quality personal protective equipment putting us at great risk but we still did not let service to COVID patients get affected.

In return, we received:

1. Academic loss of one year and still counting
2. No exemption of fees for the academic year that was lost
3. No relaxation for batch 2019-20 regarding thesis submission even after facing one year of decreased patient load in their core specialty and academic loss
4. Difficulty in getting work experience certificates as senior residents for working even after the end of the prerequisite training period.

Our demands

1. Prevent further academic loss by replacing residents with public health department doctors in COVID wards. Residents can be posted in supervisory roles. This will decrease the number of postings a resident will have to do in COVID wards and allow them to receive training and treat patients in their own core specialty instead.
2. Medical colleges and hospitals are tertiary care centers and should be used for patients requiring tertiary care. They should no longer be dedicated COVID hospitals.
3. Exemption of fees for the academic year that was lost serving at the frontline
4. Good quality personal protective equipment (PPE) to be provided in adequate quantities
5. Relaxation of post graduate thesis submission to be extended to residents of batch 2019-20 too.

If our requests are not considered and if the same scenario repeats wherein residents have to face the whole brunt of the situation then we would be left with no choice but to withdraw our services in non COVID and go on an indefinite strike. If no further actions are taken even then, we would withdraw our services from COVID duties also.

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Nagpur News

NIA raids Nagpur man’s residence at 4 am for suspected terror links with Zakir Naik

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Radhika Dhawad | Nagpur
National Investigation Agency – NIA – conducted searches at three locations in Nagpur in its ongoing probe into a case having terror links.

Area in Satranjipura where raids were being conducted

National Investigation Agency – NIA – conducted searches at three locations in Nagpur in its ongoing probe into a case having suspected terror links with Islamic preacher Zakir Naik. The investigation that began at 4 am and concluded at 8 am during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, was carried out at Satranjipura and Hansapuri areas of the city. 

Acting on a tip off, the officials raided the residences of the accused for allegedly establishing a contact in Pakistan through their mobile phones. 

The NIA interrogated two people – Akhtar Raza Vald Moh and Ahmad Raza Vald Moh – living near Badi Masjid in Satranjeepura for allegedly chatting with a Pakistani person through WhatsApp. 

The NIA team released Abdul after issuing him a notice and confiscating his phone. The NIA team confiscated Abdul’s mobile phone.. Reportedly, a few days back, both the accused had an argument at an Iftar party that was organised at Badi Masjid so the Lakdganj Police had called them for questioning. 

Zakir Naik is an Islamic preacher, founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) who faces multiple charges of money laundering and hate speech in India. Naik, who has been residing in Malaysia since 2017, is accused of instigating Muslim youth and terrorists in India and abroad to commit terrorist acts.

Also read: Dance enthusiasts, friends pay tribute in loving memory of Tiki Peters in Nagpur

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Nagpur News

Dance enthusiasts, friends pay tribute in loving memory of Tiki Peters in Nagpur

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Radhika Dhawad | Nagpur

Dance enthusiasts, friends and students came together and paid a heartfelt tribute in the loving memory of renowned western dance teacher late Benedict Peters fondly called as Tiki Peters. Moreover, the get-together also gave a chance to enthusiasts who wished to express their love for dance. The get together was held at Money Plant Terrace in Laxmi Nagar on March 13.

Hosts – businessman Dhananjay Sakharkar and Deputy Executive Editor at ABP Majha Sarita Kaushik – along with other guests, reminisced some memorable anecdotes of Tiki that lifted spirits of all as they went down the memory lane. 

Fondly remembering Peters, Sarita Kaushik told Nation Next, “Tiki was a dear friend for whom Dhananjay and I arranged this small get-together. He was a gifted teacher who danced like no one else. His moves were fabulous; no body could teach better than him. He had a commendable sense of aesthetics when it came to dance. I’m glad his elder sister and brother are equally talented and will continue Tiki’s legacy of excellence.”

Dhananjay, who had known Peters for nearly four decades, said, “My association with Tiki dates back to over 40 years. He taught  us many dance forms including Jive, Salsa, Disco, Ballroom, Waltz, Cha Cha Cha. More than anything else, Tiki was an exceptional human being – with amazing sense of humour! When Tiki passed away, Sarita and I arranged a small party where we served everything that he loved  – veg puff, macarons, cakes, soft drinks and of course music to dance! This was our small gesture for our dear friend who, I’m certain, was smiling from the heavens that evening!”

Tiki Peters, who was brought up in an Anglo-Indian culture – something that was predominant in city’s Mohan Nagar area, passed away in November last year. 

Also read: Inside the famous ₹1.3 crore worth gift bag given to Oscar nominees this year…

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Nagpur News

BREAKING: Gadkari again receives death threat calls from same caller

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Radhika Dhawad | Nagpur
The Public Relations Officer of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari again received two death threat calls  today morning (March 21).

Nitin Gadkari

In a rather shocking incident amid the high security C20 conference in Nagpur, the Public Relations Office of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari again received two death threat calls  today morning (March 21). According to the information received, once again there have been threatening calls received in the name of a criminal named Jayesh Pujari alias Jayesh Kantha.

Employees of the senior BJP leader’s office alerted Nagpur Police and security has been beefed up outside the office in Khamla and the leader’s residence on Wardha Road. However, cops are yet to ascertain whether the call was actually made by the same person who had issued death threats to Gadkari in January. 

On January 14 this year, an unidentified extortionist, claiming to speak on behalf of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, threatened to kill Gadkari in an explosion if he didn’t pay him ₹100 crore.

The caller threatened Gadkari though a phone call on the landline number of his Public Relations Office (PRO) at Khamla in Nagpur (around one kilometre away from his residence) at 11:25 am, 11:32 am, and 12:30 pm.

The employees of the office alerted the police after the threat call, where in the caller also threatened to blow up Gadkari’s office. Nagpur Police immediately beefed up the security outside Gadkari’s office and residence. 

It was later revealed that a notorious gangster named Jayesh Pujari had threatened to kill Gadkari by allegedly making the three threat calls illegally using a cellphone while he was lodged in Belgaum Jail at Karnataka. 

In 2016, Pujari had even escaped after breaking the jail. The gangster, in the past too, had threatened several senior officers and other people in a similar manner. 

Also read: NMC spends ₹20 crore on lighting trees for C20 in Nagpur

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