Will take legal action if docs flout DDMA guidelines: Delhi Police

Citing guidelines issued by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) of not organising gatherings during the pandemic, the Delhi Police on Wednesday said they would initiate a legal action if doctors do not follow it.

"We have requested the protesting doctors that keeping in view the rising cases of Covid-19 they should not organise any kind of gathering in the city," Assistant Commissioner of Police KPS Yadav told IANS.

The resident doctors have been protesting for the past 13 days over the delay in NEET-PG 2021 counselling. The ACP said it is clearly mentioned in the DDMA guidelines that no social gathering or rally is allowed in these pandemic times.

"They [doctors] are the country's responsible citizens and every one of us takes inspiration in our lives from them. If the people see the doctors themselves are not following the Covid induced protocol, they might do the same," Yadav said.

Responding to a question that if the doctors still do not budge?, the officer said the cops' first attempt will always be to make the resident doctors understand, but, "if they still don't agree, then legal action can be initiated against them".

Notably, the meeting between a delegation of the protesting doctors and the Union Health Minister on Tuesday failed to make any headway, following which the resident doctors continued their protest in support of their demands, including the withdrawal of the FIRs filed against them.

Meanwhile, the highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron's tally has climbed to 781 in the country, of which the capital Delhi has the highest cases of infection, 238.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday announced to impose restrictions under Level 1 of the Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) in Delhi as Covid-19 positivity rate continued to be over 0.5 per cent in the last few days.