Souvik Banerjee, an intern at the North Bengal Dental College & Hospital (NBDCH), continued his fast-unto-death for the seventh day on Sunday over the 10-point demand raised by junior doctors in the wake of the RG Kar brutality.

Alok Verma, a first-year postgraduate student at the NBMCH, who had fasted along with Souvik, continued to be in the hospital a day after his health worsened.

On Sunday, Siliguri BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh visited the NBMCH to meet Alok and Souvik.

“The state government should immediately accept their demands in writing. The chief minister should understand that the hunger strike can put the lives of these junior doctors at risk and impact the state-run healthcare system,” said Ghosh.

Nine members of the Siliguri Welfare Organisation, a social organisation in the city, observed a 12-hour hunger strike on Sunday in solidarity.

“We are watching with utter dismay that the state government is sitting silent although the health of the fasting junior doctors is deteriorating. We fasted on Sunday to support them,” said Jyotirmoy Paul, the outfit secretary.

Pen-down strike

The Federation of Medical Associations (FeMA), an apex body of 69 outfits from various academic streams of medical institutions, wrote to the President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their intervention to end the ongoing impasse. Kaushik Pandit, the FeMA convener who met Alok and Souvik in NBMCH on Sunday, said that from Monday, doctors in government and private medical institutions across the state would observe a 48-hour pen-down strike. “Emergency services will be operational,” he added.