While the prolonged strike has started taking its toll on patients and the services offered at the New Civil Hospital, the agitating doctors not only smashed the window panes of the PWD office in protest against what they called inaction on part of the staff in repairing a road, but also broke a notice board and a couple of window panes in the passage near the Dean's office.

The doctors claimed they had given a week's time to the PWD to repair the road leading to hostel. A group of them stormed into the PWD office located behind the Dean's office, asked the staff to vacate it and went on the rampage, damaging property and breaking window panes. Nobody was injured in the incident.

The same group, while walking past the dean's room, damaged the notice board littering the passage with pieces of glass. A couple of windows near the canteen were also damaged.

Meanwhile, in-charge superintendent Dr Khadija Saifee said there was no visible impact of the strike as she had posted the teaching staff in place of resident doctors. The agitating doctors, however, claimed their absence was telling on the hospital administration and the number of patients turning out for OPD was going down every day.

While denying there was a major fall in the number of OPD patients, Dr Saifee admitted that only emergency operations were being undertaken and all routine operations had been put on hold in view of the strike.

A large posse of policemen was deployed near the Dean's office late in the evening in anticipation of a sudden agitation by junior doctors. However, there was no programme.

President of the Junior Doctors' Association Pritu Dhalaria said the agitating doctors would take out a rally on Wednesday and then submit a memorandum to District Collector R M Shah demanding that the government resolution increasing their stipend be issued immediately.