Kolkata Doctors’ Protest To Go Bigger? Bengal Govt Says 7 Of 10 Demands Met, IMA Vows No More Meetings

Kolkata: The RG Kar impasse does not seem to be resolving anytime soon with thehunger strike entering day 10. The Bengal chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday held a meeting with government officials, including the Chief Secretary, which lasted for around two and a half hours.

Despite this, the two sides could not reach a consensus and the strike is, as of now, expected to continue, even though a few doctors fell ill due to their fast.

Kolkata RG Kar Doctors' Protest: 10 Points

1. The Chief Secretary said they had a discussion with the representatives of senior doctors' associations and during this two-and-a-half hours of conversation, the doctors raised various issues and all these have been noted down.
2. Seven demands out of ten raised by junior doctors have been met and the rest of the work is in progress. For the rest of the three demands, they were insisting certain timeline. "We can not tell the timeline now," the Chief Secretary said.
3. He said they have requested the junior doctors through their representatives to withdraw the hunger strike. He claimed there was no discussion over the removal of the State Health Secretary.
4. On the other hand, the doctors said the meeting at Swasthya Bhawan was inconclusive and there was no major breakthrough in it, Dr. Ranjan Bhattacharya, Joint Secretary, IMA Bengal said.
5. They claimed the State government is not ready to remove the "controversial" Health Secretary from his post.
6. IMA Bengal chapter said they will not come for any further meeting with the state government officials. Now, senior doctors are also considering going for a bigger movement.
7. Weeks ago, the doctors held a meeting with the officials including Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee after days of contention and the state government removed and transferred various government officials including Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North Division) Abhishek Gupta, Director of Medical Education Dr. Kaustav Nayak, and Director of Health Services Debashish Halder.
8. However, the Bengal Health Secretary was not removed and the junior doctors have been seeking removal. They also demanded a task force for their protection amid a number of cases where doctors were beaten or attacked by patients or their relatives in various state hospitals.
9. It all began when a trainee woman doctor was raped and murdered inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and her semi-nude body was found on August 9. The probe led to the arrest of a civic volunteer – Sanjoy Roy and unearthed corruption that was done by former Principal Sandip Ghosh.
10. The CBI is presently investigating the case from the angles of rape and murder as well as corruption.

(With inputs from Rittick Mondal)