Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Thursday appealed to junior doctors in the state to resume their duties for the sake of patients.
Junior doctors have been on a ceasework since Tuesday following the attack on two of their colleagues at NRS hospital on Monday night after the death of a 75-year-old patient.
The appeal from the governor came after he met representatives of the agitating junior doctors at Raj Bhavan on Thursday afternoon.
A statement issued by the governor’s press secretary said the agitating doctors had submitted a memorandum demanding “adequate security and protection for doctors in hospitals, proper investigation and punishment for all those who attacked the junior doctors and redressal of their other grievances”.
“The memorandum has been sent to the state government for necessary action,” a Raj Bhavan official said.
Besides the representatives of the agitating doctors, Doctors’ Association of ABVP West Bengal met the governor to apprise him of the situation and sought his intervention.
“We are in talks with our units across India to show solidarity with the agitating junior doctors at NRS. It’s our appeal that they should show solidarity with the doctors in Bengal without going for a strike,” Indranil Khan, state vice-president of ABVP, West Bengal, said.
The state BJP doctors’ cell sought Union health minister Harsh Vardhan’s intervention to “resolve the crisis”.
“We are in the process of getting an appointment with the Union health minister at the earliest. We want to apprise him of Bengal’s healthcare ground reality.... There have been more than 200 attacks on doctors since February 2017,” Vivekananda Majumdar, convener of the BJP’s doctors’ cell in Bengal, said.
“We strongly believe that Delhi should intervene immediately to ensure the safety of doctors in Bengal,” Majumdar said.
Subhas Sarkar, the BJP MP from Bankura, a doctor himself, said the party’s Bengal unit had planned to take up the matter in Parliament if the state government failed to resolve the impasse.
“I will take up the matter in Parliament if the impasse continues till June 17, when the Parliament session starts,” he said.
