Kolkata Doctor Death: West Bengal government on Saturday backtracked the transfer order of 42 doctors, which it had issued earlier today. The news of transfer orders, which came amidst the ongoing protests over the rape and murder of the junior doctor in Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, had drawn massive backlash from the opposition.
Opposition leaders including BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla had slammed the Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the transfer orders, claiming that it was an attempt to silence the voice of those protesting against the incident.
Announcing Bengal government's decision to take back the transfer orders, Principal Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam, said: "Today, news is being published about the transfer of 42 doctors. Our West Bengal government has almost 24 medical colleges. Apart from that, there are many specialized institutes in which there are more than 6000 doctors. In West Bengal, their promotional exercise of Medical Education Service, their routine transfer exercise is a very long process."
"This process started 2 months before this incident. Its approval was also done a lot of days before this incident. But we have to do a lot of checking on it. Therefore, it is possible that its publication got delayed," he added.
He further said that in view of the the situation in the city right now, the government has decided to "keep the service completely normal everywhere."
"Therefore, we have cancelled this order right now," Nigam said.
He also stated that any further decision regarding the transfer of doctors will be taken after a few days.
The doctors' assocation had also criticised the decision of the state government, claiming that it was trying to intimidate the doctors who had been protesting for the victim's justice.
Out of the 42 doctors who have been transferred, two — namely Dr. Sangeeta Paul and Dr. Supriya Das — were previously posted at RG Kar MCH, where the victim's body was found on August 9.