Mkcg Medical College. Telegraph picture

Berhampur, Jan. 11: About 165 teachers belonging to the Orissa Medical Teachers Association have boycotted undergraduate and postgraduate classes in MKCG Medical College since yesterday.

The teachers are demanding that the order suspending associate professor Dr Siba Prasad Das of the surgery department be revoked immediately. The teachers association is determined to continue the agitation till its demand is met. “We will boycott the classes for a week. A delegation of the association will meet the health minister after seven days and we will decide upon the next course of action after reviewing the situation,” said Dr Suchitra Panigrahi, secretary of the association, Berhampur branch .

If the government takes a positive step towards meeting their demand, the association will withdraw the agitation, she added.

All the doctors of MKCG Medical College and Hospital have been wearing black badges in protest since Thursday. Associate professor Dr Siba Prasad was placed under suspension after stray dogs mauled the body of a Raghunath Behera, a farmer from Mahanadpur, that was lying on the corridor of the surgery ward on December 18.

The state health department had suspended him based on the inquiry report of the additional district magistrate, Sashi Bhushan Padhi.

“I was the surgeon on call on December 18. I am supposed to attend to emergency calls for immediate surgery or specialised treatment. How can I be responsible for a dead body?”said Dr Das.

Professor Rasananda Mangual, head of the surgery department, said that there was no negligence in the treatment protocol. She alleged that the body was mauled by dogs because the relatives of the patient were careless.