The protests have been going on since the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant has sent a new letter to the protesting junior doctors of the hospital and has called them for talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at 5 pm. Along with this, the Chief Secretary has limited the number of members of the doctors’ delegation to 15 in the new letter. However, the doctors’ demand for live telecast of the meeting has been rejected. Permission has been given to record for transparency. However, it is not yet decided whether the doctors will attend the meeting or not.
The doctors are protesting outside the West Bengal Health Department office in Salt Lake and demanding justice for the rape victim. The body of the rape victim was found in RG Kar Medical College on August 9. After this, there were massive protests not only in Kolkata but all over the country. Today is the 34th day of the protest. Despite being invited by the government for talks on Wednesday, the doctors had put a condition of the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and live telecast.
News agency PTI quoted one of the protesting doctors as saying, “We will continue our agitation and strike work. But, we did not want to continue it. The state government is not ready to hold any meeting with us. And we want to make it clear that there is no politics behind our agitation.” The junior doctors have demanded enhanced security for women health workers and suspension of several officials, including the Kolkata Police commissioner, for alleged mismanagement of the case. The rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the orders of the Calcutta High Court.
Meanwhile, the state government today convened a high-level meeting at its secretariat Nabanna in which all the district magistrates and superintendents of hospitals were present. The state government has made two attempts to hold talks with the agitating doctors in the last two days which failed. Senior doctors have expressed solidarity with their juniors and said that if anyone is suspended, senior doctors will also stop working in the OPDs of government hospitals. Earlier, state Health Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya on Wednesday evening rejected conditional talks with junior doctors and reminded them of the Supreme Court order of Monday, directing doctors to resume work.
