At the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, the corridors were littered with stinking medical waste, including blood soaked cotton swabs and used bandages. This was how the sweepers' chose to protest against the government's refusal to grant them better pay and perks, despite the health risk posed to the patients.

At Safdarjung Hospital, the striking employees tried to disrupt the process of the appointment of daily wagers for sundry cleaning jobs at the hospital to maintain cleanliness, while the Sucheta Kriplani Hospital administration had to obtain a court stay against the strikers, to prevent them from creating similar trouble on the hospital premises.

The corridors of Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital in east Delhi that are usually teeming with patients wore a deserted look this afternoon. The reason: most of the patients reaching here from rural belts of Uttar Pradesh in search of specialised health care were turned back since the hospital employees were on strike.

Health care services at all the government hospitals and dispensaries were severally crippled today as 70,000 employees belonging to group `B', `C' and `D' began their 48-hour strike, demanding better pay and more perks. The Union government, apparently under pressure from the unusually belligerent stance of the powerful employees' union, has meanwhile set up a high powered ministerial group to look into the issue.

While the OPD services were partially affected, all routine surgeries at a majority of the 26 government hospitals were put off. As a result, hundreds of patients who were given the appointments for surgeries months ago had to be turned back. Only emergency cases were being handled.

The situation is likely to turn serious tomorrow, the second day of the two-day agitation, as the uncleared garbage and soiled linen start accumulating, threatening the spread of a host of infectious diseases. Work was equally affected at all dispensaries being run by the NDMC, MCD, CGHS and Delhi Administration.

The group of ministers, headed by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and including the Health Minister Dalit Ezhilmalai and officials from the department of Personnel, was constituted last week by Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee following representations from the hospital employees. It will meet on July 13 to resolve the issue, Health Minister Dalit Ezhilmalai announced at a press conference today.

The Joint Council of Health Employees which comprises the employees of central government, city government and municipal hospitals, is demanding better pay scales keeping in view specific nature of duties, sanction of 25 per cent of basic pay as patient care allowance and three time-bound promotions in the service span.

Appealing to the striking employees to ``listen and wait for a little more time,'' the minister told the reporters that his government, which had been in office for only three months, needed time to sort out demands that can be negotiated and those that can be conceded straight away. The demands, he added, had been pending since 1987 and policies of previous governments had led to the current impasse.

He said government had prepared a contingency plan to deal with the strike but refused to disclose their details.

The employees, including technicians, laboratory assistants and clerks, have threatened to launch a four-day agitation on July 20 and then follow it up with and indefinite strike on July 25 if their demands were not men by then.