Protest over transfer of doctors from Kullu hospital

Our Correspondent

Kullu, November 21

Members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) unit of Kullu college today staged a dharna at the Regional Hospital against the recent transfer of eight doctors.

These doctors had reportedly gone for registrarship in other medical colleges and many posts had fallen vacant in the Kullu hospital. Students took out a rally from the college to the hospital and raised slogans against the state government. It was for the first time that ABVP activists protested against the state government on a matter not related with the college or education.

ABVP state executive body member Mahender Thakur said: “The hospital caters to patients of Lahaul and Spiti and parts of Mandi district. They are being deprived of proper health facilities due to lack of specialists. The government should recruit doctors at the earliest to facilitate patients.”

Kullu Senior Citizens’ Council president Kamal Bhardwaj said: “The lack of specialists is a matter of concern as the doctors have been transferred without making fresh recruitments. The poor and the elderly are the most-affected. We have apprised the Chief Minister, Health Minister, local minister and the local MLA of the issue through a letter and demanded that vacant posts of medical specialists be filled on priority.”

Bhardwaj said a medical college should also be set up in Kullu. “It has become a necessity considering the topographical conditions of the region. The government has set up several higher education institutes in various parts in the state but Kullu has been deprived of any such institution,” he added.