(Top) Barricades on the road running through Veer Surendra Sai Medical College and Hospital (above) of Burla on Monday. Telegraph picture

Sambalpur, Sept. 19: The agitation by junior doctors and medical students continue to paralyse healthcare services at VSS Medical College and Hospital here even as the district administration initiated steps to prevent the entry of goons on the campus.

Yesterday, the state government decided to reopen the medical college “in the interest of the students”, which was closed indefinitely on September 7 following a clash between the agitating medical students and local residents.

“Though the college will open from tomorrow, we will not join classes until our demands are fulfilled. The government must ensure safety of the students and at the same time, the authorities need to take exemplary action against all the goons involved,” said Nilamadhab Prusty, a member of the joint action committee. The government had also announced its decision to prevent the entry of local BJD leader Sisir Dandia, who was allegedly involved in the attacks on the medical students in July and again in September.

Earlier on July 13, Dandia and his aides had allegedly manhandled a junior doctor alleging negligence in treatment. This incident had sparked tension among medical students, who retaliated and severely beat up Dandia and his aides.

Following this incident, medical students had resorted to ceasework demanding security and an unified campus. Again on September 3, there was a clash between the medical students and Dandia’s supporters.

The district administration today clamped prohibitory orders under Criminal Procedure Code barring the entry of four persons, including Dandia, on the college campus, hostel and doctors’ colony. The three other persons were Sisir Dandia, Jagannath Rao, Santosh Kumar Jena and S. Venkat Subranmiyam.

The administration today erected barricades on the road running through VSS Medical College and Hospital of Burla and stepped up the security in the hospital area.

“We have erected the barricade to stop the anti-socials from entering the hospital premises. The barricade will not hinder the entry of patients and general people,” said local sub-divisional police officer Deviprasad Dash.

However, the agitating junior doctors and postgraduate medical students continued their strike demanding the fulfillment of all their demands.

The demands of the agitating medicos include reopening of the case against Sisir Dandia, issue of a non-bailable warrant against him, dropping of false charges against the students, a unified campus and regularisation of duties of those absent during the previous and current strike of VSS and SCB medical colleges.

On September 4, students of VSS Medical College had a clash with local residents. Sisir Dandia, who heads the local BJD unit, and his aides had allegedly attacked the medical students. Following this clash, the students resorted to ceasework and closed down the outdoors of the hospital, which had caused public resentment.

This had also triggered a further clash between local residents and medical students on September 7 that led to the closure of the medical college. The agitating students of VSS Medical College have been sitting on a dharna in the state capital since then while their counterparts in SCB Medical College in Cuttack and MKCG Medical College in Berhampur have extended their support by resorting to indefinite ceasework.

The ongoing strike has seriously affected health services in the three government-run medical colleges across the state.