On June 30, doctors, professors and students from various educational institutions will stage a dharna at the Jawaharlal University in New Delhi to continue their protest against the Union government's decision to increase seats for Other Backward Classes in medical and technical institutions.
Dr Sanjeev Chibber, national convener, Citizens for Equality, the organisation heading the anti-reservation agitation, disclosed this to rediff.com on Monday morning.
The reservation issue: Complete coverage
Dr Chibber runs a hospital in Delhi and was one of those who helped raise money for the striking resident doctors during their 19-day strike at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.He does not want to discuss the ways and means by which the money was raised or the amount of money spent on sustaining the strike by the resident doctors, saying it would dilute the issue.
"Look the money that was spent was all accounted for and there is no hanky panky," says Dr Lokesh Paliwal, a senior resident doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
"I am not a financial expert," adds Dr Paliwal. "Dr Kamlesh Talesra handled the finances. You kindly speak to him and he will give you the necessary details."
Dr Talesra admits that a lot of money was spent on the agitation, but does not quantify the figure.
"I do not say that no money was spent," he says, "but it would be difficult to say how much."
"The expenses were huge but they were picked up by individuals. Someone paid for the tents, some for the bottles of drinking water, some put money in the cash donation boxes. At times we doctors had to shell out money from our pockets to keep the strike going," points out Dr Talesra.
"Every single penny was accounted for," he adds, "and it was approved by the general body meeting."
'Middle class only bothers about itself'
Dr Talesra denies that private hospitals donated funds to the striking doctors. "Some employees of these hospitals may have given," he says.
"Don't ask me how much money was spent. It flowed like water," says a junior resident doctor who did not wish to be identified for this report.
"Besides Delhi, we had strikes and dharnas in the entire country including Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh and several other places. I would say the money spent could be anything between Rs 75 lakhs (Rs 7.5 million) to Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million)," claims the junior resident doctor.
In Chandigarh, the doctors on strike were taken aback when the manager of a State Bank of India branch in the city refused to open an account under the name 'Voice for equality and voice against reservations.'
The account was to have been used to deposit cash and cheques received as donations.
A lot of rage, a little Rang De
Dr Anindya Banerjee of Chandigarh's Post Graduate Institute Association of Resident Doctors told rediff.com on the telephone that the doctors were surprised because the manager was friendly but reluctant to open an account because it was meant to collect money for the anti-reservation agitation.
"When we went to the SBI branch on our campus, the manager would not budge," says Dr Senthilnayagam, who handled finances on behalf of the Chandigarh doctors.
"He told us he could not do it as our body was not registered and hence his hands were tied," adds Dr Senthilnayagam. "We then went to the ICICI branch and got the same answer. We then decided to appeal to the people wishing to support the anti-reservation movement by sponsoring different items like tents, water bottles, water coolers etc."
