A fresh appeal was made by the West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Thursday to all junior doctors to attend what he described as an important meeting with the Chief Minister, Mrs Mamata Banerjee, at 5 PM. This meeting will therefore seek to provide an unfolding protest by healthcare providers to do with the alleged rape and murder of a female doctor. The state government accepted the doctors’ plea but rejected their demand to make the meeting a live telecast – however, it said that the discussion would be recorded.
In his communication, Pant further said that the delegation from the doctors’ side should not exceed 15 members. This limitation is more so as the junior doctors have been continuously protesting in front of the West Bengal Health Department office at Salt Lake, demanding justice for their fellow doctor whose dead body was found with multiple injuries on 9th August at RG Kar Medical College. Their constant protesting has affected the efficiency of healthcare service delivery, especially in state-owned facilities; this protest has now reached its 34th day.
As earlier reported, the protesting doctors had set one condition: that the meeting should be attended by the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, and the talks should be telecast live. One of the doctors said, “We will carry on our agitation and ‘cease work.’ But for this we did not want to go on. This is the stand of the state government. There is no political intention behind our agitation. ”
The junior doctors are also demanding security for women doctors, and some officials, most notably the Kolkata Police Commissioner, have been suspended since, citing mismanagement of the case. This has become a sensationalized case that is in the process of being investigated by CBI after an alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old woman who was a trainee doctor.
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