Bihar Health Services Association officials at the meet in Patna on Monday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, May 30: Around 3,000 doctors working in government hospitals would abstain from work tomorrow in protest against the brutal murder of one of their on-duty colleagues at Gopalganj jail yesterday.

Dr Budhdeo Singh was beaten to death by prisoners on Sunday. The government doctors in Gopalganj district are on strike from this afternoon demanding a CBI probe into the case. They also want FIRs be registered against all the senior jail and police officers on duty when the prisoners murdered Singh.

Senior office-bearers of Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA), a body representing the state government doctors, said today about 3,000 doctors across the state would abstain from work for a day to register their protest against the incident. Speaking in an emergency protest meeting, Dr Ajay Kumar, the general secretary of BHSA, said the incident had come as a rude shock to the medical fraternity.

“We deeply condemn the incident in which Dr Budhdeo Singh was killed by hardened criminals in an organised manner. It reveals complete administrative failure and lackadaisical attitude of the government. We are not going to keep quiet over the issue. So, we have called the symbolic strike tomorrow from 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening,” he said.

“The doctors will go to hospitals but will not work,” Kumar said, appealing to the private practitioners and doctors in the teaching cadre to join the strike.

Kumar demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore to the grief-stricken family of Dr Singh immediately.

The doctors’ association demanded a special force like CISF for the protection of doctors in the wake of increasing number of attacks on medics in the state.

“The government is planning to implement a distorted form of MPPA but we will not let it happen. Also, we want the Andra Pradesh model of the act be implemented by an ordinance. There is no point in waiting for the monsoon session of the Assembly,” Kumar added.

The Bihar chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) also expressed its shock over the incident and said it had left everyone stunned. “It is very unfortunate that a doctor on duty in jail was brutally assaulted and mercilessly beaten. We demand that his family be given a compensation of Rs 2 crore and his widow be given life-long pension,” Dr Rajeev Ranjan, the vice-president of Bihar IMA, said.

Health minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey appealed to the doctors to not to proceed on strike. “This was an inhuman incident and extreme of brutality. However, doctors’ strike is not a way of solving the issue, as it will largely hit the functioning of the government hospitals in the state and will be against the interest of common people. We will call meetings of senior jail and health officials to discuss ways to stop such incidents. MPPA too will be enacted during the monsoon session of the Assembly,” Choubey said.