Medicos' apex body encourages people to vote

In an appeal to 2.75 lakh doctor-members across the country, the  apex body of medicsl practitioners, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has asked to provide 25 per cent discount to  patients visiting them with voting ink marks on their fingers. The proposal would encourage more people to vote these Lok Sabha Elections, the association believes.

The initiative has been taken by the IMA, which is an over 80-year old organisation and is widely being hailed as an excellent step towards encouraging more people to vote these polls.

IMA secretary general Narendra Saini told Daily Bhaskar that the organisation had 2.75 lakh doctors as its members.

He said, the organisation thought the proposal to provide 25 per cent discount to patients could encourage more people to vote t the forthcoming elections. He added more than 2 lakh of the association's doctors interacted with around 1 crore patients directly and the organisation thought it was a perfect medium to increase awareness about voting.

He added further, the proposal was receiving considerable support in all the 29 states of the country.

Saini added that IMA had 1700 local branches across 29 states, which were leading the initiative with full vigour.

Meanwhile, the Bengal chapter of the IMA had gone a step ahead and appealed to doctors in the state to give 25 per cent discount in pathological tests too and for two weeks to boot, PTI reports.

IMA has 17,000 doctors as its members in Bengal.

State secretary and national joint secretary Shantanu Sen told PTI, if parents voted, their children would also get a discount on fees when visiting child specialists or pathological labs.

Asked how the IMA would know whether doctors were actually giving discounts, Saini said, IMA could only appeal to the conscience of the doctors to be a part in the cause.

According to Sen, even if 25 to 40 per cent of IMA members responded to the appeal it would be deemed as having set an example.