A minor scuffle was reported between police officials and junior doctors of Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was visiting there on Sunday.
While a video of the incident was circulated widely on social media, with some Congress leaders alleging that resident doctors were arrested, the Jhansi district administration denied the charge. The junior doctors were only stopped and the “entire episode was caused by a slight miscommunication”, the DM said.
In a video posted by Congress leader Pankhuri Pathak, police officials were seen purportedly pushing the doctors and taking them away from the spot.
Jhansi District Magistrate Andra Vamsi said: “There was a slight miscommunication and the doctors were trying to give a piece of paper regarding some very minor issues like playground and gymnasium in the medical college hostel. It happened at a point in time when the CM was about to board the car. Later, I met the doctors and assured them of doing everything to meet their demands. The information about the arrest is wrong,”.
A meeting was held between the protesting resident doctors and the DM, where local BJP MP Anurag Sharma and the principal of the medical college were present. At the meeting, it was decided that existing facilities in the hostels will be improved with additional new facilities, the DM said.
Meanwhile, Adityanath, during the visit, stated that the first two waves of the pandemic were “markedly different”, and his government is making all efforts to face the third one.
Adityanath said that 15 new oxygen plants were being set up in Bundelkhand region, of which six will be in Jhansi.
“The first and the second wave of Covid-19 are altogether different from each other. The state did not face any oxygen shortage in the first wave. But since the disastrous second wave hit the state, the demand for oxygen supply increased and we had a crisis,” he said,
He claimed that his government had pulled out all stops to avoid an oxygen shortage in the state. Adityanath met local public representatives, doctors and officers and held a Covid review meeting with them.