Sunday, 19 MAY 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The death of resident doctor Dr Devesh Garg late on Friday night in the SGRR medical college triggered protest from the resident doctors on Saturday. Dr Garg was a first year PG student of the college and he allegedly committed suicide by injecting himself. Agitated by the death of the fellow student, the resident (PG students) doctors went on an impromptu work boycott on Saturday. The resident doctors allege that Dr Garg was humiliated by some professors due to which he ended his life. Meanwhile, the police are investigating the case and the post mortem report of the deceased is awaited.
On Saturday morning the agitated resident doctors of the medical college protested at the office of the vice chancellor and principal. They demanded an inquiry in the case and resignation of the principal Dr Utkarsh Sharma.
One of the agitating resident doctors told The Pioneer that Dr Garg was suffering from depression but the immediate trigger for his decision to end his life was the undue pressure exerted by the head of department of paediatrics, Dr Utkarsh Sharma who also is the college principal. Dr Sharma had changed the topic of his thesis after submission of the thesis protocol, he alleged. He claimed that Dr Garg was being humiliated which forced him to commit suicide. “The resident doctors have resolved to remain on work boycott till the principal resigns,’’ said a resident doctor.
The chief public relations officer of the SGRR Institute of Medical and Health Sciences, Bhupendra Raturi said, “It is unfortunate that a young doctor has left us all. The cause of his death will become clear in the post mortem report.” However, Raturi added that the unfortunate incident should not be made a subject of any political or other polarisation. He said that it has come to fore that the PG student was facing some family issues. Raturi averred that he was earlier posted in a Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Haryana and was not interested in doing PG but he took admission under pressure from family. He said that the medical college is functional under the guidelines of the National Medical Council (NMC). Raturi said that some people are trying to defame the medical college by presenting the death of a student in the wrong context which is highly deplorable.
