Health Minister DL Ravindra Reddy made it clear today the government would hold talks with the Junior Doctors only after their strike is withdrawn.

Speaking to media persons at his chambers in the Secretariat in Hyderabad, the minister said the strike and the fasting programmes of the junior doctors looked politically motivated. “If they withdraw the strike and attend to duties, we are ready to hold talks with them,” he said.

The minster said the doctors seemed to have been provoked by the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu.

The doctors, however, denied that their agitation is politically motivated and ruled out the question of withdrawing their strike. “Let the government give a written undertaking, then only we will withdraw the strike,” they said.

Observing that the government is ready to discuss and consider the proposals of the doctors, the minister said the ball is now in the court of the doctors. “It is true that the doctors’ agitation started in Visakhapatnam and spread to the other parts of the state,” he said, adding, the stipend system of junior doctors has been regularized after he took over as the health minister. The earlier governments kept the issue pending, he said.

Attacking the YSR Congress party president YS Jaganmohan reddy, the minister said Jagan does not know any thing about the junior doctors. “Jagan says the stipend should be paid as per the rules mentioned in the Medical Council of India’s Charter but the MCI doesn’t talk about the stipends. MCI role is related to seats and admissions only,” said the Minister. (JUBS)