The three-day mass Casual Leave by resident doctors in Maharashtra's government hospital escalated with 40,000 medicos of the Indian Medical Association joining their protest on Wednesday.

The state government meanwhile served an ultimatum till 8 p.m. of Wednesday asking doctors to resume duties failing which they could face a six-month pay cut. "We have given them the final ultimatum," Medical Education Minister Girish Mahajan told the media.

Individual hospitals in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra also initiated their own action of slapping show-cause or suspension notices on the agitating medicos. According to a spokesperson for the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), suspension notices were served on 370 resident doctors in Nagpur and 114 in Solapur.

The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation served notices to around 500 doctors asking them to resume work as per the Bombay High Court directive immediately or face acton. IMA President Ashok Tamble said that from Wednesday, all the 40,000 member doctors would strike work in government hospitals across the state, but only essential or emergency medical services shall be maintained.

Boosting the agitating doctors' cause, the IMA extended support to the medicos' demand for implementation of the Violence Against Doctors Act, 2010 and adequate provisions for their security as per court directives.

Expressing support to MARD from New Delhi, the AIIMS Resident Doctors Association said that instead of providing security to the medicos, the government was threatening to cut salaries and evict them from hostels. "We resident doctors of AIIMS are forced to work with helmets in Emergency as we don't want to lose our vision and life as well as our hard earned degrees," the Association said in a statement.

He said there was no discussion on compensation for the doctors who were beaten. Despite a strong rap by the Bombay High Court on Tuesday, MARD made it clear that the agitation would continue till the government ensured security in hospitals against violence by patients' relatives. IMA Youth President Sagar Mundada said its 45,000 member-doctors in Maharashtra and over 200,000 in India also oppose any punitive action against the agitating resident medicos.

Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G.S. Kulkarni made strong observations on the doctors and asked them to join duties, failing which the government was free to act against them. The MARD agitation against frequent attacks on resident doctors by relatives of patients led to major disruptions in government hospitals. Hundreds of scheduled surgeries were postponed and snaky queues of poor patients were seen outside the hospitals.

In Mumbai, the government hospitals hit were KEM, Sion LTMG, Nair and Sir JJ Group.

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