Over 7,000 IMA doctors take out cycle rallies in UP

Meerut: Nearly 7,000 private doctors took out cycle rallies in 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh on March 11 morning in their attempt to create awareness about what they claimed “pitfalls” of National Medical Commission(NMC) Bill 2017. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), under whose banner the doctors are on war path against the bill, has also called a doctors’ ‘mahapanchayat’ in Delhi on March 25. The association also said that over 25,000 doctors will take part in the ‘mahapanchayat’.
In Meerut, about 200 doctors hit the streets and went rallying around the city on Sunday in protest against the bill. They went to all the major crossings of the city.
In Agra also, scores of doctors took out cycle rally. They also presented a memorandum to MP while raising their concern. Doctors took out cycle rally in Mathura as well, and staged a protest against the bill.
IMA’s Agra president Dr. Ravi Pachauri claimed that the bill will have an “adverse effect” on the country’s healthcare system.
According to the new bill, practitioners of alternative medicines will become eligible to prescribe modern medicines after undergoing a six-month bridge course. The government says that it will benefit people living in far flung villages where MBBS doctors are reluctant to practice.
However, the IMA says that the safety of people will be compromised if the bill is passed and the practitioners of alternative medicines are allowed to venture into the turf of modern medicine.
The bill was introduced in Parliament on January 2. But, on the same day, it was referred to a standing committee after vociferous protests from across the country.
Since then, the doctors associated with the IMA have held several protests against the government proposal.
Now, IMA has planned to hold doctors’ mahapanchayat on March 25 at Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi to raise their voice against the bill.
Dr. Medhavi Tomar, president of IMA’s Meerut unit, said: “The cycle rally was organised against the NMC Bill, which was prepared without hearing to our objections. We want the government to reconsider the bill.”

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