The junior doctors who have been on protest demanding justice in the RG Kar rape-murder and a total cleanup of Bengal’s health administration on Thursday late evening said they will lift their protest in front of the health department at 3 pm on Friday.

In a press statement, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which has been spearheading the agitation, called for a mass rally to the CBI office at CGO Complex at 3 pm on Friday.

“Today, on the forty-first day of our movement, we can affirm that we have achieved initial success regarding the five demands for justice for Abhaya that sparked our protest,” the Front said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

“Due to our movement, we have been able to halt the heinous conspiracy to cover up the incident and the malicious attempts to undermine the investigation,” the statement said.

“We have fought on the streets, and we are also fighting in the High Court and Supreme Court. However, our struggle is not over. It will continue until justice for Abhaya is served and until the actual perpetrators, along with those who sought to protect them, are identified and punished.

“Under the pressure of our vigorous movement, the government accepted most of our second and third demands in a meeting on the 16th, leading to the removal of the CP of Kolkata Police, DC North, and DME DHS from their positions. However, Sandeep Ghosh, who had turned the hospital into a den of corruption is now in CBI custody for the rape and murder case of Abhaya, and his medical degree has been revoked.

“Despite this, we continued to stand firm on our fourth and fifth demands. On the 18th, we participated in a meeting with the Special Task Force regarding these demands. While there was verbal agreement on our demands, the government refused to include this consensus in the meeting minutes, resulting in no decisions being made. However, after the meeting, they requested our specific proposals to implement the fourth and fifth demands. Accordingly, we sent those proposals last [Thursday] night at 3 am.

“At 7 pm today [Thursday], we received a response from the Chief Secretary regarding this matter. The correspondence mentioned the issuance of several guidelines, and several of our proposals, particularly concerning the fourth demand, have been accepted. The guidelines outline several initiatives for our safety,” the statement said.

It pointed to the chief secretary’s letter issuing directives for “CCTV installation, designated rooms for doctors, water supply arrangements, and the presence of female police officers and special police patrols in colleges, along with panic alarm systems”.

The statement mentioned under initiatives outlined in the chief secretary’s letter, but added: “However, we have yet to receive specific guidelines regarding the termination of the threat culture in colleges and the creating a democratic atmosphere in colleges, as we had proposed. Only a grievance cell has been suggested, meaning there has been no action regarding our fifth demand about student elections in medical colleges, RDA elections, and punishment for those associated with the threat culture.”

The statement added: “In light of the fact that majority of our demands being met, we view this as an initial victory. Therefore, tomorrow [Friday] we will withdraw our protest in front of the Health Department. We will return to each medical college to discuss the SOP for essential services and will join the essential services frorn the day after tomorrow [Saturday], while our strike on other issues will continue.”

The junior doctors iterated: “Even though we are returning to work, we want to emphasize that the interim responsibility for safety lies with the state administration. If there is any failure in this regard, we will have to take strict measures again. However, withdrawing our presence or partially ending our strike does not mean the WBJDF's movement for justice for Abhaya has concluded.

“We still see no significant progress regarding our first demand for a swift, transparent investigation and punishment for the guilty. Justice for our sister's murder is our primary and fundamental demand,” they said.

“Therefore, tomorrow [Friday] at 3 pm, we will lift our protest in front of the Health Department and we call for a mass rally to the CBI office at CGO Complex. We invite all students and people from every level of society to join this CGO campaign, keeping the spirit of this movement and the pursuit of justice in mind. Additionally, we will continue the sit-ins in medical colleges demanding justice for Abhaya,” the statement added.

The next hearing in the Supreme Court on the RG Kar case is on the 27th of September.

“We expect the government to take action on these matters before that date; otherwise, we will be compelled to escalate our movement starting from the 28th,” the junior doctors said.

“Various factions of the ruling party are attempting to undermine the unity of our WBJDF. While it is true that we have differing opinions, which is essential for healthy democracy, the WBJDF has shown how to positively synthesize these differing views into a long-term unified movement. We are all committed to continuing this process in the future.”

The doctors’ statement mentioned the flooding in large parts of south Bengal.

“A significant portion of our state has been affected by flooding. To support those impacted, WBJDF will quickly send Abhaya relief teams and medical teams. We hope that the people of Bengal, who have supported the movement for justice for Abhaya, will similarly stand by the flood-affected individuals,” it said.

In conclusion, I want to reiterate that since we took to the streets on August 9 for justice for Abhaya, while we have achieved initial victories, our demands for justice have not yet been fully met. We commit to continue this movement for justice in the days to come, both to ourselves, to Abhaya's parents, and to all the people of Bengal.