Junior doctors said on Monday evening that the state government’s promise to put in place CCTV cameras at government medical colleges by October 10 is not enough and that their movement was about bigger reforms.

They said their fast till death would continue and demanded that the government announce the dates of the students’ union elections and elections to form resident doctors’ associations in medical colleges.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front announced a rally from College Square to the protest site at Esplanade, where seven junior doctors are on a fast unto death with a set of 10 demands, on Tuesday. The rally will start at 4.30pm.

The organisation also called upon junior and senior doctors in all medical colleges to take part in a token 12-hour hunger strike from 9am on Tuesday.

The junior doctors had initially been on a 42-day cease-work since the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.

They again started a cease-work 10 days after resuming work. The doctors announced withdrawal of the strike on Friday but started a fast unto death the next day to press for a charter of 10 demands.

Six junior doctors started the fast at 8.30pm on Saturday. A seventh joined them on Sunday night. Two junior doctors from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital started a fast till death on their campus on Monday, said juniordoctors.

“This movement is not just about installing CCTV cameras. We are seeking greater reforms in the government healthcare system. It is also about conducting students’ union elections, resident doctors’ association elections and security for all medical personnel. These are among our demands,” said Asfakulla Naiya, a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar and one of the faces of the protest.

Naiya was speaking minutes after Bengal’s chief secretary Manoj Pant announced in a news conference that 90 per cent of the work to boost security at the government medical colleges in the state would be over by October 10.

He 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.

Rumelika Kumar, a postgraduate trainee at All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, said the junior doctors have received verbal assurances from the government earlier, too, but hardly any action was taken.

“The claim that so many CCTV cameras have been installed could have been made through a written statement. We have received verbal assurances earlier, too, but little changed on the ground. We cannot take a decision based on verbal assurances. Even then, it has taken the government more than 40 hours since the start of the hunger strike to announce the progress of work,” said Kumar.

“We have shown a positive outlook. That is why all junior doctors barring those on hunger strike are working.”

Kumar said the junior doctors were not happy with the presence of health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam at the news conference addressed by Pant. “It is very sad that the health secretary, whose resignation we aredemanding, was standing beside the chief secretary during the news conference,”she said.

A row between the police and the protesting junior doctors erupted on Monday evening when a section of medics marched to Bowbazar police station and squatted in front of the building to protest the seizure of two cycle-vans carrying cots to the site where the hunger strike is on.

The lane between Bowbazar and Hare Street police stations was blocked by the protesters till late on Monday.

A senior officer said Nirmal Chunder Street, from where the cycle-vans were seized, is not meant for slow-moving vehicles.

He said the protesting doctors were told that there was no attempt to apply force on them or disrupt their fast unto death.

“The junior doctors refused to believe us and kept saying that the police were deliberately trying to disrupt their agitation at Esplanade. We have decided to wait and watch,” a senior officersaid.

At 9.55pm, Parichay Panda, one of the junior doctors who was part of a team that was speaking to officers at Bowbazar police station, said the cops had released six wooden cots, two tables and six plastic chairs that had been seized in the evening.

Those who were squatting on the road outside the police station vacated the place.

The seven doctors are fasting on a stage set up on a stretch of Chowringhee Road opposite Metro cinema.

All through Monday, only a single file of vehicles could pass through the Chandi Chowk-bound flank of Chowringhee Road.

The police diverted Shyambazar-bound vehicles through the other flank.On Monday afternoon, the junior doctors announced a rally and a token hunger strike on Tuesday.

“All junior doctors, senior doctors and other healthcare workers will take part ina 12-hour hunger strike on Tuesday. There will be a rally from College Square till Esplanade. It will start at 4pm,” said Debashis Halder, a junior doctor at Medical College Kolkata.

“Two junior doctors from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital started a fasttill death today. They are fasting on their campus,” said Halder.