Quota protests sweep the nation

New Delhi: There seems to be no end in sight to the protests against the Government's proposal to up the OBC quota by 27 per cent.

In fact on Tuesday, instead of abating, the protests seemed to spead further across India.

Battle-lines between pro and anti-quota demonstrators were drawn in Mumbai after a pro-reservation rally was organised by Nationalist Congress Party leader Chaggan Bhujbal.

Medical students have approached students of IIT and IIM to join them in protesting against the quota.

On the other hand, The 'Youth for Equality' forum decided to move the court against Mumbai Police's brutal lathicharge on protesting students last Saturday.

In Kolkata, medicos from the entire state took out a rally to show their solidarity with the nationwide agitation against quota.

The doctors will sit on a dharna at the Calcutta Medical College hospital and emergency services are expected to be severely affected.

And it's not just the metros where the doctors are striking.

Cities such as Bhopal, where junior doctors including dentists, are on an indefinite strike and Ludhiana where over 500 students from the Dayanand Medical College and Baba Jaswant Singh Dental College protested against the lathicharge of medical students by the Mumbai Police, have jumped into the fray as well.

The doctors are planning on approaching residents of the city to join in the protests.

Students from the SAL Medical Institute in Ahmedabad took out a scooter rally to protest against the reservation issue.

Junior doctors of four municipal corporation run hospitals - VS hospital, LG hospital, Shardaben hospital and Nagri eye hospital are on a token 24 hours strike that begins at 0900 hours IST on Wednesday.

Students in Jammu and Kashmir have expressed solidarity with their counterparts in other states despite the fact that the quota does not affect them in any way.

In Bihar, health services were partially crippled as resident doctors and students from different medical colleges and hospitals also took to the streets.

They demanded the quota proposal for OBCs in premier educational institutions be taken back.

Protesting students even tonsured their heads to mark the HRD Minister Arjun Singh Tehrvi or the 13th day of mourning after death.