The letters were delivered to Mayor Datta Gaikwad and standing committee chairman Arun Dhimdhime at their respective officesThursday afternoon. In an apparent bid to bury the growing differences between them over the issue, Bhatia' s letter sought a meeting ``on a date and time of your convenience'' to discuss the issue.

Dhimdhime said he would take up the offer extended by Bhatia with the Mayor after the standing committee meeting scheduled on Friday before taking any decision.

Hospital hits back
The Joshi Hospital authorities on Thursday hit back at the Pune Municipal Corporation and the police, alleging that the action of lodging a criminal case against them was ``illegal.''

The hospital management council claimed at a press conference that the hospital alone had been discriminated against by ``continuous persecution, harassment and lodging of the police case while other hospitals have been allowed to go scot-free only be paying fines for unbroken disposable syringes.''

Secretary of the Maharashtra Medical Foundation which runs the hospital, Dr Lala Telang, claimed that the nosals and needles of disposable syringes were being cut immediately after use at the hospital for the last five years.

The hospital management had started crushing the barrels of syringes after receiving instructions from the PMC about disposal of waste and its staff had been instructed about proper disposal of the waste, he added.