Senior doctors will join the protest on Wednesday afternoon, junior doctors who are sitting in front of Swasthya Bhawan, the health department HQ, demanding justice in the RG Kar rape-murder and a total clean-up of Bengal’s health administration said.

“Today there is also a call from senior doctors,” Dr Sk Mehebub Hossain, junior resident doctor, Calcutta Medical College & Hospital, who has been in the protest the whole night, told The Telegraph Online.

“The joint platform of doctors has called for a protest in front of the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) which is not far from Swastha Bhawan where we are protesting. They will arrive at around 3:30-4:00 pm to support us. They have been supporting us, but now they will come into the movement directly.”

Hossain clarified that the senior doctors will not cease-work like the juniors have done.

“Their agenda is just to lend support. We are anticipating around 300-500 doctors,” he said. “There is no official call made till now for the meeting today. Yesterday two IPS were sent to talk to us. One was the commissioner of Bidhannagar,” he said.

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The protests, which have been ongoing for over a month, intensified on Tuesday when the doctors marched to the state health department, listing their demands for the state government. Their sit-in continued well past the Supreme Court's 5pm deadline, with the protesters refusing to back down until their demands were met.

The RG Kar victim's family joined the protest late at night, stating that they cannot stay at home when so many people are protesting for their daughter.

A major point of contention for the junior doctors is the email invite for discussions from principal health secretary N.S. Nigam, whose resignation the junior doctors demand . The email limited the number of participants for a meeting with the government to 10. The message was also delivered verbally through police officials, the doctors said.

"The email that came from N.S. Nigam was very demeaning as a maximum of 10 people were allowed to go for a meeting,” said one protesting doctor who did not wish to be identified. “They were constantly trying to contact us through police officials. We are demanding the resignation of N.S. Nigam himself. How can we attend a meeting with him?"

Dr Hossain questioned the government’s intent.

“We have been protesting for over a month now. My question is how come the chief minister never thought of speaking to us before? We do not want any closed-door meeting; whatever will happen will happen in open public now,” he said.

“She [the CM] literally called the victim’s mother a liar and tried to defame her. Through the media we got to know the CM was waiting for us at Nabanna, there was no mention in the mail that CM was waiting for us, if she wants to speak to us she should approach us through proper channels” he added.

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“Back in 2019 there was a close door meeting onek kichu chapiye dewa hochilo tokhun [alot of things were forcibly put on us back then]. As a part of security there was just one collapsible gate set up then with no proper result and junior doctors were also insulted. This time no such closed-door setting will happen. We want open meeting with no ‘setting’ being entertained,” Dr Anubhab Saha, an intern at RG Kar Medical College who has been in the protest the whole night told The Telegraph Online.

The protesting doctors claim that despite their ongoing cease-work, patient services at government hospitals have not been significantly disrupted. The government, through its lawyer Kapil Sibal, told the Supreme Court that 23 people had died without medical care due to the junior doctors’ ongoing cease work.

“The patient flow in the hospital is normal. I agree that there is a burden on seniors and my professors, but no one is going untreated,” Dr Hossain said. “On our last admission date in the hospital, more than 500 patients came to the OPD. Every service is being continued, my seniors are giving their 200 per cent.”.

As a part of the continuing protest, 51 doctors from RG Kar Hospital have also been summoned to appear before an inquiry committee on Wednesday.