Monday, May 22 2006 10:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Rejecting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's appeal to call off their strike and the GoM proposal for increased seats in educational institutions alongside quotas, medicos yesterday (May 21, 2006) decided to continue their agitation and Uttar Pradesh government clamped ESMA against the strikers.

'Youth for Equality' group spearheading the agitation, which entered the eighth day today, against 27 per cent quotas for other backward classes, said the Prime Minister's appeal 'carries no meaning as it does not address our demands for rollback of the proposed OBC reservations and review of existing reservation policy by a non-political committee.

The Prime Minister had appealed to the medicos last night asking them to have faith in the government, which was working to find an amicable solution.

The UP government invoked Essential Services Maintenance Act declaring the strike by junior doctors at Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Insitute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow illegal and asked them to resume duty within 24 hours.

State Chief Secretary Navin Chandra Bajpai said the services of those who do not report to duty would be terminated and legal action taken against them.

In another instance of cracking the whip, Union Health Ministry issued notices to medicos at All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here 'to vacate hostels if they fail to return to work'.

"Ministry officials said the step was taken after the government's advertisements for recruiting resident doctors, interviews for which were likely to begin tomorrow. "The new doctors will need hostels," they said.