Agitating medicos of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) called off their strike Thursday afternoon even as Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said he had returned their degree certificates to the institute director for corrections.
"I have returned the degrees to the director, AIIMS for rectifying the mistakes at the earliest so that the degrees to the students who require such degrees urgently can be issued immediately," Ramadoss informed the Lok Sabha.
"These degrees were signed among others by one Dr. Sandeep Aggarwal as registrar of the institute. As per the AIIMS regulations, the appointing authority for registrar is the governing body. Shri V.P. Gupta was appointed by the competent authority as registrar in 2002 and he has been functioning since then as registrar AIIMS.
"The degrees were forwarded by one Dr. Sandeep Aggarwal who is not registrar AIIMS appointed by the governing body," the minister said.
Earlier this year Gupta was sacked by Venugopal, who appointed Aggarwal to the post without the consent of Ramadoss, who is also the president of the institute.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court Thursday asked the central government to file a reply on the resident doctors' strike - protesting against not getting their post graduate degrees - and its effect on the thousands of patients who visit the hospital.
"Respecting the judiciary we have called off our strike. We hope the court will listen to our grievance as well," Nitin Kukkar, a protesting doctor said.