Junior doctors demanding justice in the case of rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital have refused to end their strike until their five main demands are met. The doctors have written a letter to the state’s Chief Secretary requesting a meeting today itself so that the health system can be improved and problems related to the dangerous environment in hospitals can be discussed.
The doctors wrote in their letter, “In the meeting held on Monday, we were assured that a special task force will be formed under your leadership which will resolve these issues and matters related to it will be discussed with us. We want to talk to you and the other members of the task force today itself.”
This strike is going on at a time when on Tuesday, during the hearing of the RG Kar Medical College rape and murder case in the Supreme Court, it was told that the junior doctors are ready to return to work provided their general body approves it and the things decided in the meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are implemented. The Supreme Court said that the junior doctors are not feeling happy by staying away from work but they are on strike due to unsafe environment and dangerous working conditions, whose safety is the responsibility of the state government.
There was no official statement from the government till 1:30 pm, but Trinamool Congress MP and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee wrote on social media that the state government has accepted most of the demands of the doctors and under this goodwill, the doctors should now think about ending the strike. He said, “From the very first day, I have been supporting the safety of the doctors and their concerns. Most of their demands are legitimate and logical.”
Abhishek Banerjee said, “Steps are being taken to improve security and infrastructure in hospitals, which includes installing CCTV cameras and infrastructure development in medical colleges. This work is expected to be completed within 14 days. Apart from this, the state government has also transferred top officials of the Health Department and Kolkata Police.” Abhishek Banerjee said that as a gesture of goodwill, doctors should now end the strike and work with the government so that these changes can be implemented as soon as possible.
On Tuesday evening, junior doctors held a long meeting in which they accused the government of not fulfilling some promises. A representative of the doctors, Aniket Mehta, said that we had demanded the removal of the state health secretary but no decision was taken on this. The Chief Minister only gave verbal assurances but no concrete steps have been taken so far. The doctors said that their protest will continue until all the demands are implemented.