The junior doctors on Friday announced an end to their cease-work and the beginning of a sit-in demonstration at Esplanade in the heart of festival-bound Calcutta.

They gave the government a 24-hour deadline to agree to their 10 demands, failing which they said they would start a fast unto death.

Till late on Friday night, the junior doctors had blocked an entire flank of Chowringee Road, triggering snarls and forcing northbound traffic into a detour.

The demand that the junior doctors mentioned first while announcing the sit-in was the removal of Bengal’s health secretary, Narayan Swaroop Nigam.

“We also want to make it clear that the removal of the principal secretary of health, Narayan Swaroop Nigam, has been one of our demands from the beginning of the movement,” Debashis Halder, a postgraduate trainee at Medical College Kolkata and one of the faces of the protest, said.

Many wondered how the medics would resume work and stage the sit-in at the same time.

Some of the protesters said a group of doctors would not return to work and would take part in the sit-in and the possible fast. The plan is to have junior doctors from as many medical colleges as possible to join the fast, they said.

“We are withdrawing our cease-work completely, but we will also intensify our protests. We are carrying a clock with us. Why? Because we are giving the government 24 hours to accept our demands. We will count every minute. If they do not accept our demands, we will start a fast unto death,” Halder said around 8.45pm.

The trainee doctors’ 10-point demands include justice without any further delay in the form of a protracted judicial process; immediate implementation of a centralised referral system in all hospitals and medical colleges; a digital bed vacancy monitor; elections for resident doctors’ associations; elections to medical college student unions; task forces in each college with elected representation of junior doctors; arrangements for CCTVs, on call rooms and bathrooms.

Around 200 junior doctors marched from SSKM Hospital to Esplanade on Friday evening and started the road blockade after accusing police of assaulting two of their colleagues who were preparing to set up a dais opposite the Metro cinema building.

Announcing the sit-in, Halder said: “We will not block any road. We will not inconvenience people.”

But the road remained blocked till late into the night as the junior doctors milled around their protest venue.

The scaling up of the protests was announced around 8.45pm, nearly an hour and 45 minutes after junior doctors arrived at Esplanade.

By the look of it, Friday’s gathering did not have the swell of people that doctors’ rallies attracted earlier. However, passionate slogan chanting returned to the city’s roads as the night wore on.

A junior doctor said they emailed police seeking permission to assemble at Y channel, a lane off Chowingree Road, but when two of their colleagues came with pickup trucks with tarpaulin sheets and cots, the police allegedly heckled them.

“We came with some tarpaulin sheets and cots for the news conference. There were vans that came carrying the stuff. The police at Y-channel kept threatening the drivers and were almost forcing them to leave. I intervened and tried to prevent them from forcing the matadors to leave,” said Apan Samanta, a junior doctor of Medical College Kolkata who alleged he was assaulted.

“About 15 to 20 police personnel came and tried to pull us away. They pushed me down on the road and kicked me,” he said.

The police told this newspaper that the junior doctors had time till 4pm to assemble at the Y channel. “They did not mention they will set up a dais when they sought permission for the assembly,” the police officer said. A police officer was heard telling the junior doctors that they did not see anyone in uniform trying to drag away or hit any junior doctor. “We have to find out who are these people,” the officer said.

Junior doctor Halder said the police had sought a written complaint about the alleged assault before any action could be initiated.

One junior doctor could be heard asking a colleague if they had enough evidence to prove an assault.

Friday’s rally followed a 10-hour meeting of junior doctors from various medical colleges that ended at 6am on Saturday.

The medics started their second round of cease-work from Tuesday (October 1). Their first round of cease-work started on August 9 following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. They resumed work, but only partially, on September 21 after a 42-day cease-work.

In 10 days, they were back to a complete cease-work.