Fend for yourselves, Pande tells doctors

patna: bihar governor vinod chandra pande on friday asked a 40-member ima delegation, led by its state president dr ajay kumar, to learn to protect themselves to avoid their kidnapping. he promised the doctors to help them obtain licence for revolvers. giving this information, kumar said that the governor asked the doctors to keep revolvers to protect themselves from criminals. the governor told them that if they could not put pressure on the government as a group, who else would come forward to improve the situation in the state. the ima delegation apprised pande of the situation prevailing in the state. people in general and doctors in particular had become panicky due to the increasing incidence of kidnapping and extortion. the delegation told him that kidnapping, murder and violent attack on doctors had assumed alarming proportions in the state. the doctors had called on pande in the wake of kidnapping of two doctors -- dr purnendu ojha and dr k m verma -- on tuesday. the delegation submitted a memorandum to the governor. it was for the first time that the ima had not called on the cm, chief secretary, home secretary and dgp to seek government help for the release of a kidnapped doctor. the ima has requested all union ministers from bihar and jharkhand to make efforts to bring the situation under control in bihar. the association has also sought appointment with union home minister l k advani and congress president sonia gandhi in this connection. meanwhile, all private nursing homes and clinics in patna remained closed on friday for the third successive day in protest against the kidnapping of nine doctors during the past seven months. three of them were kidnapped during the current month itself. the nursing homes and clinics would resume working from saturday.