Panaji, Nov 29 (IANS): Days after members of the Goa Private Dental Practitioners association staged a walk-out from an interaction of medical practitioners with BJP national president J.P. Nadda, the association has accused the convenor of the BJP's medical cell Dr. Shekhar Salkar, of calling the protest 'politically motivated'.

In a statement on Monday, the association members said that they were called to Nadda's interaction here on November 25, to specifically discuss issues related to their profession, including the recent hike in bio-medical waste handling fees, which they claimed was "unreasonable."

"But the fact is we were there on a specific invitation having told the Convenor, BJP medical cell that the purpose of attending the meet was to submit the memorandum to the BJP National President and have a healthy interaction with him so that our issues are resolved at the earliest, we were not seeking any favours and definitely not taking any chances," the statement read.

"The meet was supposed to be an interactive session which was delayed until almost 10 p.m. and though we patiently waited for Naddaji and others, the dental fraternity felt that their representatives were not allowed to express themselves and were not even allowed to finish what they had to say. What we were told would be an 'interactive' session in reality, turned out to be an 'interruptive' session and hence we staged a spontaneous walk out," the association, which has around 350 members in Goa also said.

The main organiser of the meeting Dr Shekhar Salkar, a renowned oncologist, who is also the convenor of the state BJP's media cell had slammed the association members for staging a protest and wearing black arm-bands at the meeting with Nadda, suggesting that the protest was politically motivated with an eye on the upcoming 2022 state Assembly polls.

"He (Dr. Salkar) told us that this was a one-off opportunity to present our issues before the BJP national president in the presence of the Chief Minister and said that if we came in large numbers, it would put immense pressure on the Chief Minister and he being a politician would understand our importance and resolve our issues at the earliest," the statement said.