Mamata meets agitating docs, discusses their demands

PTI, KOLKATA, OCT 21, 2024: The talks between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and agitating junior doctors to resolve the impasse stemming from the rape and murder of a medic at RG Kar Medical Hospital were held for nearly two hours on Monday evening. The two sides discussed various demands of the medics, including the prevailing “threat culture” at state-run hospitals. The meeting, held on the 17th day of a fast unto death by a section of protesting doctors, was streamed live for the first time from the state secretariat, Nabanna.

At the meeting, Mamata repeatedly urged the junior doctors to end their fast, stating that most of their demands had been addressed, while rejecting the one for removing the state health secretary. “At RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, several junior doctors and medical students were suspended without following proper procedures and rules. How can these students or resident doctors be suspended just on the basis of complaints? Who gave the college authorities the right to take such a step without informing the state government? Is this not a threat culture?” the Chief Minister questioned.

Following this, Aniket Mahato, an agitating doctor who had to be hospitalized after five days of fasting, countered the Chief Minister by saying those who were suspended “have been very much part of the threat culture and don’t deserve to be doctors.” “If needed, the state government can assess their performance and then decide. The atmosphere of the medical college campus has been vitiated by these goons under the guise of students. If you recheck their answer sheets, you will see these students don’t deserve to get even pass marks,” he said.

The protesting junior doctors arrived at the state secretariat on Monday evening to meet the Chief Minister in an effort to resolve the ongoing impasse following the rape-murder of an on-duty woman medic at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The doctors, however, asserted that they would continue their hunger strike demanding justice for the murdered doctor, removal of Health Secretary NS Nigam, and enhanced security for healthcare workers, among other issues. "We are looking for a positive outcome from the meeting," said Debasish Halder, one of the agitating junior doctors, as they departed for Nabanna, the state secretariat, from their protest site at Esplanade, where they had been fasting since October 5.