Ranchi, May 16: The Jharkhand Indian Medical Association (IMA) today made it clear that the national body of the organisation has, so far, not supported the agitation of the medical students against the reservation policy for the backward class in the higher education institutions.
State IMA secretary Ajay Kumar Singh said the support had been extended by the Delhi Medical Association (DMA), which is the Delhi unit of IMA.
He made it clear that the Jharkhand unit of the organisation will follow the directions of the national body of the IMA.
?A meeting of the national IMA?s central working committee will be held in Mount Abu on May 20-21 in which the organisation will discuss its stand on the quota issue,? Singh added.
In a telephonic conversation with the president of the national IMA, Sanjeev Mallick, Singh said Mallick had categorically said that the IMA has not taken any stand so far. ?He asked us not to do anything on the issue unless the IMA comes out with a stand,? Singh said.
The reservation policy was a political issue, whereas IMA is a non-political organisation, he said. ?Moreover, IMA is a doctors? body, whereas the reservation issue concerns the medical students. We will be clear on the issue after the central working committee meeting,? he said.
According to another senior IMA functionary, the issue will generate a lot of controversy in the state.
?This is a very sensitive issue. Already doctors of the state are divided on caste lines. There are sections of doctors in Ranchi who might not support the agitation which would lead to fissures in the IMA,? he said.