Chennai: In a crackdown on the four-week-long agitation by medical students, Tamil Nadu government on May 17 night announced en masse suspension of all the 5,000 striking medicos, hours after talks on their demands broke down and the students refused to call off the stir.

Those suspended included 1200 students who were to take their semester-end exams in the first week of next month, Director of Medical Education Dr C Ravindranath said.

The disciplinary action, which came after the deadline set by the government to the students to call off the stir expired, had been taken as the students had violated an undertaking given by them at the time of admission that they would not involve in any stir, he said.

Government would reconsider its decision if the students, along with their parents, gave an undertaking that they would not participate in any agitation in the future, he said.

However, the students' representatives said they would not be deterred by the government's action and would continue their agitation till their demands were met.

The students' representatives earlier met Ravindranath and handed over a memorandum demanding that private medical colleges should not be allowed to come up in the state.

Earlier, state Health Minister S Semmali said the students had "exceeded their limits" and were "pressurising" the government on policy matters, which would not be tolerated.

PTI