CPIML Bihar State Secretary Kunal on 6 May 2022 strongly condemned the brutal lathi charge on the agitating GNM students at PMCH.
Those brutally beaten during this lathi charge include AISA State President Vikas Yadav, Joint Secretary Divyam, Aditya, Nishant, Ashish, Saket, Animesh Chandan, AIPWA leaders Anita Sinha and Asma Khan and Insaf Manch leader Mushtaq Rahat.
The government and administration should have resolved this issue in a sensitive manner but nowadays under the Nitish regime the use of the language of lathis and bullets has become a common occurrence.
It is to be noted that ANM nursing students sat on strike on 6 May. MLA Gopal Ravidas also reached the spot in their support. The student nurses are agitating against the arbitrary shifting of their hostel to Rajapakar in Vaishali. Their demand is that hostel arrangements should be made immediately in Patna.
Bihar Health Minister's Effigy Burnt in Protest against Lathi Charge on GNM Students
Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey's effigy was burnt in Patna on 7 May in protest against the brutal police lathi charge on agitating Nursing students as well as AISA-AIPWA-RYA activists, and the adamant attitude of PMCH and the health department.
The effigy-burning was part of a statewide protest called by AISA-AIPWA-RYA and was preceded by a march starting from the PMCH gates. MLAs Manoj Manzil and Sandeep Saurabh and AISA-AIPWA-RYA leaders Shashi Yadav, Saroj Chaube, Anita Sinha, Kumar Divyam, Aditya Ranjan, Nishant, Ashish, Saket, Asma Khan, Puneet, Anuradha and others participated in the protest.
Speaking at the meeting that followed the effigy-burning, the leaders said that the brutal lathi charge at the behest of PMCH and the health department is extremely condemnable. The entire PMCH campus has been turned into a war zone. The Nursing students were asking for accommodation arrangements in Patna instead of arbitrarily shifting their hostel to Rajpakar in Vaishali, but instead of listening to their problem they were brutally beaten and dragged to the Thana. The injured girls were not even given medical treatment. The leaders said that Health Minister Mangal Pandey is not a Minister but a mafioso. Where is the logic or justice in arbitrarily sending 200 PMCH girl students to a hostel outside Patna?
Protests were also organized at other centres in Bihar apart from capital Patna.
Delegation Meets Health Minister on Nursing Students Issue
A CPIML-AISA-AIPWA delegation met the Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on 11 May 2022 on the issue of the protesting GNM Nursing students. The delegation comprised CPIML legislative party leader Mahboob Alam, AIPWA General Secretary Meena Tiwari, AISA State Joint Secretary Kumar Divyam, AIPWA leader Asma Khan and GNM Nursing students.
The delegation told the Health Minister in clear terms that shifting the Nursing students' hostel from Patna to Rajapakar in Vaishali is not correct from any angle. A memorandum was submitted to the Minister with the demand that hostel arrangements should be made for the students in Patna itself; if accommodation is not possible for all the students at one place, they could be accommodated in batches at different places but within Patna.
The delegation said that the brutal lathi charge on the students was extremely insensitive and has created an atmosphere of fear among the students. They should be reassured that they will not face such brutality again in the future. Moreover, PMCH and the administration are threatening them with further action, and such threats must be put to an end immediately.
It will be remembered that the GNM Nursing students have been protesting against their hostel being arbitrarily shifted from Patna to Vaishali and they were brutally lathi charged by the police, seriously injuring many students. The delegation pointed out to the Health Minister the administration's insensitive attitude towards the students.
Mahboob Alam said that the Bihar government should put away its adamant attitude and show sensitivity in this matter, resolve all the fears of the students and make arrangements for their accommodation in Patna.
