West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday evening invited the agitating junior doctors for a meeting at the state secretariat to resolve the impasse over the RG Kar hospital issue. "Your small delegation (maximum 10 persons) may visit ‘Nabanna’ now to meet government representatives," an email sent by the state’s Health Secretary N S Nigam to the protesting medics said.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Finance Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the CM is waiting at her chamber for the delegation of junior doctors to arrive for the meeting.
"The chief minister has been waiting at her chamber... We are yet to get any reply from them," Bhattacharya said.
Speaking to reporters, one of the agitating junior doctors said receiving the mail from Nigam is an “insult for us”, as they have been seeking his resignation over the RG Kar hospital issue.
"We did not get any mail from the state secretariat. We got the mail from the state health secretary, whose resignation we seek. This is an insult,” he said.
The medic said it was also “humiliating” that the state government restricted the number of representatives for the meeting to 10.
"Our protests and our ‘cease work’ will continue," he asserted.
Junior doctors across West Bengal have been observing a ‘cease work’ at state-run hospitals to demand justice for the young doctor, who was allegedly raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta last month.
Earlier today, hundreds of doctors marched towards Swastha Bhavan, located in Salt Lake on the outskirts of the city. Post 5 pm, they started a sit down protest, saying they will not move till their demands are met.
The five-point demand includes the resignation of a string of people, starting with city police chief Vineet Goyal, , state Health Secretary, Director of Health Education, and Director of Health Services.
The doctors' move has set them on a collision course with the state government, though Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that she is not willing to take action against them for now and would prefer to solve the issue through dialogue.
The government has claimed that patient care has been suffering at hospitals due to the month-long protests and that 23 patients have died in this period.
The doctors have denied the allegation, accusing the government of attempting to sabotage the protest. The junior doctors have pointed out that compared to 93,000 registered doctors in the state, their number is only 7,500.
In view of that, the government's claim that the healthcare system in the state has collapsed due to the protest is a blatant falsehood, they have said.
On Monday, a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had said the protesting doctors must resume duties by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, failing which the state government will be authorised to initiate disciplinary action against them.
At a press conference late last evening, the doctors had made it clear that they were in no mood to comply.