Cuttack: The ceasework by postgraduate doctors of SCB Medical College and Hospital continued on Sunday even as the government cracked a whip on them.

The postgraduate doctors started the protest after urology students alleged that their departmental head, Duteswar Hota, was harassing them mentally and physically.

The dean and principal of the medical college, Sidhartha Das, could not be contacted on Sunday.

Around 450 postgraduate doctors have been boycotting the hospital duty since last Monday. While 340 are MBBS doctors, who are postgraduate students, the rest 110 are government-appointed peripheral doctors, who are postgraduate students in the in-service category.

The strike by the postgraduate doctors had intensified on Saturday with senior resident doctors also joining the strike.

The senior residents are periphery doctors appointed by the state government after postgraduate qualification in the in-service category.

Around 200 senior residents had also expressed support to the strike by the postgraduate students by submitting a mass leave application on Saturday.

The communication received at the dean and principal's office from health and family welfare additional secretary Surajit Das on Saturday said: "It has been decided that if the in-service senior residents and postgraduate students are involved in the strike, they will be reverted back to their parent cadre for disobedience under government servant conduct rules."

A committee was formed at the level of dean and principal to investigate into the matter.

But the postgraduate doctors' union, which has been spearheading the strike, refused to budge from their demands, claiming that the state government's decision was just a ploy to divide them after their agitation got spontaneous support from senior residents.

The postgraduate doctors' union had started the cease work demanding "impartial inquiry" after postgraduate students in the urology department alleged that they were being constantly harassed and abused by Hota.

Phanindra Kumar Swain, the general secretary of the students' union, said last Monday that the state government was expected to take action after the report of the enquiry committee into the allegations was sent to it.

"Instead of taking any action, the state government is trying to divide us," Swain said.

"The strike will continue till the head of urology department is transferred," he added.