After extending his support to striking interns on Monday, Aaditya Thackeray arranged for, and accompanied them to, a meeting with the CM yesterday

The hunger strike initiated by medical interns to press for an increase in stipend is fast assuming a decidedly political colour. Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray had jumped into the fray on Day 1 of the strike (Monday) by pledging his support to the students and yesterday saw the striking interns meeting Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan accompanied by the Sena cub.


Hunger strike: Officials rush one of the interns to the hospital after
he collapsed during the protest.

Thirty-four members of the Association of State Medical Interns (ASMI) had gone on a hunger strike on Monday demanding that their monthly stipend be increased from Rs 2,550 to Rs 13,000, with a subsequent increase of Rs 1,000 every year. They justify the strike saying that the cost of living in Maharashtra is the highest in the country and repeated pleas to review the stipend had fallen on deaf ears.

Thackeray had visited the striking doctors on Monday and he arranged for them to meet the CM yesterday. "The representatives of ASMI and I met the CM and he has agreed that their cause is genuine. He has promised that a solution will be found in a day or two. I believe that the interns' demand is a just one. These students work round the clock and are given a stipend that can barely see them through a day," Thackeray told MiD-DAY.