Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday spoke with the protesting junior doctors over the phone and agreed to all the demands placed before her barring one, the removal of the state’s health secretary.

Mamata requested the medics to end their hunger strike and get back to work but the doctors said they would go on at least till Monday, when Mamata has invited them to another round of talks at the state secretariat, Nabanna.

At 7.28pm on Saturday, chief secretary Manoj Pant wrote to the junior doctors that it would be a 45-minute meeting on Monday “with 10 of your colleagues, after withdrawal ofhunger strike”.

Mamata promised to hold student elections at the medical colleges — one of the junior doctors’ 10 demands — within “four months”. Pant’s email to the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front later gave a five-month timetable.

The email gave details of the discussions with the chief minister and said that “elections can be held in all medical colleges and other institutions by March 2025 following necessary procedures”.

Pant and home secretary Nandini Chakravorty had arrived at the junior doctors’ protest site at Esplanade a little before 2pm.

Mamata spoke to the doctors over Pant’s phone, which was put on loudspeaker, with a microphone held before it.

The chief minister held her ground on the subject of the removal of health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam.

“I cannot do that,” she told a junior doctor who had broached the topic of Nigam’s resignation. “Will you decide which officer of the government will go and who will not? That can’t be.”

She added: “If there are specific allegations, we can probe (them) but we can’t remove someone just like that.”

Nigam’s resignation was second on the list of the doctors’ demands.

The first was a speedy probe and trial in the August 9 rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital – both of which are beyond the ambit of the state government.

Mamata reminded the protesters that she had, on their demand, removed the Calcutta police commissioner andthe state’s directors of health service and medicaleducation.

The doctors, however, had subsequently scaled up their protest.

Junior doctors across Bengal held a 42-day cease-work from August 9 following the rape and murder at RG Kar. Some of them have been on hunger strike at Esplanade since October 5 with a 10-point charter of demands.

Mamata repeatedly addressed the young doctors as “brothers and sisters” and said she was worried about the hunger strikers’ health. But she was firm when one of the junior doctors adopted a tone of all-or-nothing.

The chief minister said the state government had received complaints of “illegal activities” on the part of some of the protesting doctors but did not want to act against them.

Talking to Parichay Panda, a junior doctor on hunger strike, she said many doctors who were part of the protests had simultaneously worked in private facilities.

Mamata gave the doctors a lowdown on the measures her government had taken to fulfil their demands.

Over the phone, she asked them to list their demands. As they did so, she kept responding to each demand by speaking about the measures taken.

With the last two demands still to be mentioned, one of the doctors whispered something to junior doctor Amrita Bhattacharya, who was on the phone with the chief minister. She told Mamata that those on fast were feeling sick and wanted face-to-face discussions with her.

“Tomra jhuliye rekho na (Don’t keep this matter hanging), please,” Mamata said. “I want those on hunger strike to get well soon and go back home.”

She added: “Whatever I told you, the chief secretary will email you in a note by this evening.”

That email went out at 7.28pm, a government official said.

Mamata said: “I have no difference of opinion with you. What is just, I will not make that unjust. I have already accepted your demands. The chief secretary and the home secretary have held discussions with you several times.

“People depend on you. If government hospitals do not provide services, people will go to the private sector. The private hospitals’ growth has gone up by 40 per cent. The poor are somehow surviving because they get Swasthya Sathi benefits.”

The junior doctors said they would end their fast when all their demands had been met.

“We are being repeatedly told to return to work. We all want to go back to work. I work in the cancer department, and not being able to see my patients is mentally devastating for me,” said Snigdha Hazra, one of the fasting doctors.

“I want to return to work as soon as possible, but for our demands.... If she accepts our demands, I really want to get back to work.”

About the “four-month” window she had sought to hold student elections at medical colleges, Mamata said: “I am asking for four months because there is Diwali, Jagaddhatri Puja, Chhath Puja and we have to go through a procedure.”

She added: “I want elections to be held simultaneously at the colleges, universities and medical colleges. Give me 3-4 months. I could have said six months but I am not saying that. The situation has to be normalised.”

Addressing concerns about exam centre malpractices at the medical colleges, Mamata said: “I will ensure that no one is able to turn their heads during exams.”

She promised to form inquiry committees at the medical colleges to punish those who have created a culture of threat and intimidation, as alleged by the doctors.

Around the time Mamata was speaking with the junior doctors, Pulastya Acharya, a doctor who had been onhunger strike before falling sick, was discharged from NRS Medical College andHospital.

He said he would like to rejoin the protest though he may not be able to go on a fast again.

Anustup Mukherjee, ajunior doctor fasting from October 5 who later fell ill, was discharged from Medical College Kolkata on Saturday evening.