Kolkata: Agitating junior doctors defied the Supreme Court’s directive to join duties by 5 PM on Tuesday, saying they would continue with their agitation till their demands were fulfilled and the rape and murder victim of the RG Kar Hospital was given justice.
The top court on Monday directed the protesting residents doctors to resume work by 5pm on Tuesday, and said no adverse action shall be taken against them on resumption of work.
The court passed the direction after the West Bengal government assured it that no action, including punitive transfers, shall be taken against the protesting doctors on resumption of work.
“We will continue with the cease work as our demands are not fulfilled. We had asked the state government to remove the Kolkata Police Commissioner, health secretary, director of health services and the director of medical education by 5 PM. We are open to discussion,” one of the agitating doctors told PTI.
The junior doctors began their protest on August 9, hours after the body of the woman post-graduate trainee was found in the seminar room of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Replicating the symbolism of carrying a model spine to Lalbazar last week, the protesting medics showcased brooms and even a model brain while marching towards the West Bengal health department headquarters in Sector 5 of Salt Lake, in their bid to “clean up” the state health sector and make the top brass “think” about the plight of the doctors.
A huge police contingent has been deployed and barricades erected to stop the protesters at the Swasthya Bhawan entrance.
The protesters set a deadline of 5 pm for the state government to accept their charter of five demands which includes the resignation of the Kolkata Police Commissioner, state Health Secretary, Director of Health Education (DHE), and Director of Health Services (DHS), failing which they said they would stage a sit-in in front of Swasthya Bhawan.
“We are holding a peaceful march. We have specified our demands for justice for the victim and resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner, the state Health Secretary, Director of Health Education (DHE), and Director of Health Services (DHS). If the state government meets our demands, we will think about joining duty,” one of the protesting doctors said.
“We want the state government to ‘clean’ the health sector. We are carrying the brooms to initiate the cleaning programme. We will wait till 5 pm for the state to fulfill our demands, failing which we will start a sit-in. We are, however, open to any kind of discussion with the state government,” he added.
