In Uttar Pradesh, at least eight patients have reportedly died for want of treatment after hundreds of doctors went on strike in Kanpur town and at other places of the state. Showing solidarity with their colleagues, doctors in Lucknow, Agra, Meerut, Jhansi and some other places also went on strike paralysing health services in large parts of the state. Our Lucknow correspondent reports the striking doctors are demanding action against the SP MLA Irfan Solanki and suspension of Kanpur district police chief Yashashvi Yadav.

The trouble had sparked off after the SP MLA reportedly intervened in a fight between a doctor and an old man in front of the Kanpur Medical College on Friday evening. Several people including doctors and scribes sustained injuries in the violence of junior doctors who allegedly attacked commoners inside the Kanpur Medical College. Police lathi charged the doctors on rampage, twenty five of whom were arrested later. The Indian Medical Association's UP chapter has condemned the alleged police brutality and demanded suspension of the Kanpur police chief. A magisterial probe has been ordered into the incident, administration said.