Saturday, August 26 2006 11:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Doctors and medical students in the national capital Friday (25 Aug, 2006) suspend their anti-quota stir after the reservation bill was referred to a Parliamentary panel but students in other parts of the country continue their protests, affecting services at state-run hospitals.

In Delhi, medicos demonstrating at Jantar Mantar say they will suspend street protests till the next session of Parliament while continuing awareness campaigns against the quota for OBCs in government-aided educational institutions.

They say they will mount a legal challenge in the Supreme Court after getting a copy of the bill introduced in Parliament on Friday (25Aug, 2006).

Students of Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi will also organize awareness drives and signature campaigns in colleges.

The protests continue in Kolkata, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Kanpur, affecting services in hospitals attached to state-run medical colleges. Medicos stage rallies in several cities and block traffic on the roads.

In Kolkata, services at Calcutta Medical College and Chittaranjan National Medical College are hit as the strike by medicos enter the second day.

About 200 students and doctors are arrested in Mumbai while trying to march towards the Chief Minister's residence at Malabar Hill. Students who assembled at Wilson College are asked by police to disperse.

Services at the Sawai Man Singh Medical College in Jaipur are affected for the second day as resident doctors stay away from work. Authorities cancel the leave of all medical staff and ask them to join duty.