However, the faculty members did attend to emergency cases and indoorpatients.

Though the rooms of the faculty members were locked, it was business as usual at the PGI. The work in the OPDs was also near-normal as the patients were attended to by resident doctors.

On why the doctors were forced to "break the age-old tradition of the institute", Dr Ajit Awasthi of the PGI Faculty Association said, "The demands of the doctors have been long pending with the government. We have resented the indifferent attitude of the authorities in the past also and the one-day token strike is a way to resent the fact that the status due to us is being denied." Though their counterparts at AIIMS in New Delhi are on an indefinite strike for similar reasons, the PGI doctors decided for only a day's token strike.