Thirty-four senior doctors from RG Kar Medical College and Hospital showed solidarity with the juniors on a fast till death through a “token mass resignation” on Tuesday.

Many seniors also walked in a rally from Medical College Kolkata to the site at Esplanade where seven junior doctors are fasting.

The 34 senior doctors, however, said they would not stop providing services in the
hospital.

A section of senior doctors at Medical College Kolkata urged the state government to negotiate with the juniors, failing which they said they, too, would go for mass resignation on Wednesday.

A faculty member at RG Kar who was a signatory to the mass resignation letter, addressed to the state’s director of medical education, said “mass resignation” did not have any legal validity.

“Mass resignation does not mean we have resigned. This is a token step to show solidarity with the junior doctors, nine of whom are on a hunger strike (seven at Esplanade and two at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital). This is also an attempt to build pressure on the government to immediately intervene and end the stalemate,” said the faculty member.

“We will not stop providing services in the hospital,” another signatory said.

The letter said “the health of the protesting doctors who are currently sitting in hunger strike is deteriorating tremendously fast”.

They also threatened to go for “individual resignation”.

“We request the government to come into reconciliation with the protesting doctors and the ones who are sitting in indefinite hunger strike immediately. We senior doctors of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital are giving mass resignation as the government seems to be oblivious of the deteriorating condition of the doctors on hunger strike and if situation demands we will also go for individual resignation,” the letter says.

Debashis Halder, a junior doctor from Medical College Kolkata and one of the faces of the doctors’ protests, said the health of the striking doctors was worsening.

“The government should accept our demands,” said Halder, who is not among the seven fasting doctors.

Halder referred to chief secretary Manoj Pant’s news conference on Monday where he said 90 per cent of the work to boost security at the government medical colleges in the state would be over by October 10.

Pant had also promised to roll out a pilot project on referral of patients and bed availability by October 15. The system, he said, will be introduced across the state in the first week of November.

These are among the 10 demands of the junior doctors.

“The chief secretary said they will complete 90 per cent of some work. They were supposed to consult us but that was never done. What is the full work, based on which he is saying that 90 per cent has been completed. He also said he was requesting us to join work. Is he forcing those on hunger strike to join work? This is humiliating,” Halder said.

“The teachers have shown solidarity with us and wrote a mass resignation letter on Tuesday. We are hearing that the government is trying to put pressure on them in many ways. If this happens, our protests will intensify,” he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, junior and senior doctors and others supporting their cause walked from Medical College Kolkata to the protest venue at Esplanade.

Though the junior doctors had said the rally would start from College Square, the starting point had to be changed. Sources said police asked the junior doctors to avoid College Square because of big pandals in the area.

On Tuesday evening, the entire flank of Chowringhee Road opposite Metro cinema was blocked by supporters of the protests. While the doctors on hunger strike remained inside a barricaded zone, those who went there in solidarity with the protesters were spread across the rest of the width of the flank.