The protesting junior doctors on Sunday repeated their 10-point charter of demands from their protest site at Esplanade to clear the air about their stand.
The demands were spelled out at a rally which they called Chitkar Samabesh (rally for screaming). A new dais was built next to the one where seven junior doctors are on a fast unto death.
Before the rally began around 5pm, a protesting doctor said they had called Chitkar Samabesh to tell those who did not know why seven of their colleagues were fasting.
On Saturday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the junior doctors to spell out their demands and she went on responding to each of them by telling them about the measures the government had taken.
Chief secretary Manoj Pant and home secretary Nandini Chakravorty were at the protest site when the chief minister was speaking to the protesting doctors over the phone on Saturday.
In an email to Pant on Sunday, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front said it was unfortunate that the chief minister was “uninformed about our demands and their clear formulations”.
Mamata had accepted all the demands presented by the doctors except one — the removal of N.S. Nigam from the post of health secretary.
While the conversation was on, a junior doctor said those on fast were falling sick and it would be better if the two sides discussed the issues face-to-face.
The 10 demands of the junior doctors are:
- An answer to the question of justice without any further delay in the form of a protracted judicial process
- Removal of N.S. Nigam from the post of principal secretary, health
- Immediate implementation of a centralised referral system in all hospitals
- A digital bed vacancymonitor
- A task force in each medical college with elected representatives of junior doctors to supervise installation of CCTV cameras and the setting up of on-call rooms and bathrooms
- Increased police protection at hospitals and hiring of permanent male and female police personnel for hospitals. The task of handling hospital security should not be left to civic volunteers
- Immediate filling of all vacancies in the ranks of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers
- An inquiry committee in every medical college to investigate those involved in “threat syndicates” and punish them. An inquiry committee must also be formed at the state level
- Immediate election to the students’ council and resident doctors’ association in every medical college
- Investigation into complaints of corruption at the West Bengal Medical Council and the West Bengal Health Recruitment Board
Debashis Halder, a junior doctor at Medical College Kolkata and one of the faces of the protest, said the fast will continue till they receive a written assurance from the government that the demands would be accepted.
“A verbal assurance is not enough to end the fast unto death. We won’t withdraw our protest till we receive a written assurance from the government,” he said.
“If required, we will go to Delhi to seek justice.”
About 500 people had gathered around the protest site for the rally. One flank of Chowringhee Road, opposite Metro cinema, was filled with people who had gathered for Chitkar Samabesh.
Reejuta Chakraborty, 52, a resident of North 24-Parganas and one of those who gathered for the rally, said “the demands are not just for the doctors, but for all of us”.
Anup Ghosh, 51, a farmer, said: “I have a 14-year-old daughter. It’s only natural that I am here today to show solidarity with the doctors. If we don’t raise our voices today, who will?”
