The deadlock between the Bengal government and junior doctors regarding the five-point demands of the doctors in the wake of the RG Kar rape-murder continues to remain late on Monday night even after the two-hour long meeting between the two parties.
The meeting, which took place at the chief minister’s Kalighat residence, began around 6. 40 pm and ended at 8.45 pm.
The junior doctors returned to the Swasthya Bhavan protest site after the meeting concluded. As of 11pm, the minutes of the meeting were still being recorded and the chief minister was supposed to address the press after the noting down of the minutes was over.
The junior doctors handed the chief minister their five-point demand memorandum. The demands include the resignation of the commissioner of Kolkata Police Vineet Goyal, DC North and Central, health secretary and the director of health services and director of medical education.
According to news channels, the government accepted the demands regarding the development of health infrastructure of medical colleges in the state.
Acting DGP Rajeev Kumar, chief secretary Manoj Pant, home secretary Nandini Chakravarty and junior minister of health (independent charge) Chandrima Bhattacharya were present at the meeting at Kalighat.
Two stenographers accompanied the delegation of junior doctors to record the minutes of the meeting. The chief minister allowed the two stenographers accompanying the junior doctors to be present at the meeting to record the minutes.
“We decided to not to withdraw protests even after a successful meeting. Whatever happens we general body meeting and then decide on future course of action. If the meeting is unsuccessful, we shall have a press conference and announced she didn’t agree to her demands,” Dr Mehebub Hossain, a junior resident doctor, told The Telegraph Online as the delegation left for the CM’s residence in Kalighat.
Earlier, on Monday the chief secretary Manoj Pant invited the junior doctors to a meeting for the ‘fifth and final time.’ Junior doctors emailed a conditional acceptance of the government’s invitation for a meeting at 3.53pm, agreeing to the government invite. “In our email to the CM we have mentioned that between the two meetings two incidents have occurred, that is the former principal of RG Kar being arrested and the Tala police station OC being arrested on charges of tampering the evidence,” Diptajit Majumdar, house staff at RG Kar Medical College, told The Telegraph Online.
“We have once again requested for full transparency as it is more important than before. As our demand in our email we have clearly mentioned that we need live streaming if possible, if not we want full video recording of the meeting which should be immediately handed over to us after the meeting. If that is also not possible we would like an independent stenographer from our side to record the minutes of the meeting that will be signed by both the parties, the CM and our seniors,” Majumdar added.