Kolkata: The meeting between the junior doctors who were agitating over the RG Kar Hospital issue and the state administration, led by the chief minister, ended on a positive note, according to people privy to the developments. The chief minister is said to have appealed to the junior doctors to resume work at the earliest. However, the doctors have said that they will take a final call only after discussions.
The state has agreed to address issues related to strengthening the health infrastructure and providing necessary infrastructure for doctors, people in the know have said. The junior doctors submitted a memorandum to chief minister Mamata Banerjee during their meeting which started at around 7 pm and continued for almost three hours. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar and Junior Health Minister (MoS) Chandrima Bhattacharya were present at Monday’s meeting.
However, the state government officials said that the junior doctors’ demand seeking the resignations of the Commissioner of Police, Director of Medical Education (DME) and Health Secretary, involved an administrative process.The chief minister allowed two stenographers who accompanied the junior doctors to be present at the meeting to record the minutes, heeding to the medics’ demand.
It may be recalled that the doctors’ stir over the rape and murder of an RG Kar Hospital medical student on August 9 entered the 38th day on Monday. On Monday morning, the Bengal government invited the junior doctors to the chief minister’s residence in Kalighat to end the impasse over the protest in front of State Health Department Headquarters ‘Swasthya Bhawan’. Two earlier efforts to convene the meeting had failed.
Manoj Pant has said in his letter that “…This is the fifth and final time we are reaching out to you for a meeting between the chief minister and your delegates…In view of the Honorable Supreme Court order dated 9th September 2024 directing junior doctors to resume duties by 5 pm on the 10th September 2024, it is our bound duty, as lawabiding citizens, to follow and adhere to the apex court’s directive”.In response to the Chief Secretary’s mail, the West Bengal Junior Doctor’s Front emphasized on the meeting being videographed by separate videographers by both the parties. The doctors said that if that demand was not met, the minutes of the meeting with the full transcript be recorded and formulated by both the parties.”We have been fighting for justice. We are taking the fight forward. We will not take any decision at the meeting. If the meeting needs to be extended, we will do,” Kinjal Nandi, one of the junior doctors, said.
“We would like to reiterate that after the last proposed meeting two significant developments happened. First, the arrest of Sandip Ghosh in a case related to the rape and murder of Abhaya. Second, the arrest of Tala police station OC. These two new developments increase the significance of transparency of the meeting even more than before,” the doctors wrote.