Protesting junior doctors in West Bengal have defied a Supreme Court directive, continuing their strike despite an order to return to work by 5 PM on Tuesday. The medics, who have been on strike for 32 days, are demanding justice for the rape and murder victim of the RG Kar Hospital, along with the removal of the Kolkata police commissioner and several top state health department officials.
In response to the ongoing protest, the state government revealed that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had written to the doctors, inviting them for a meeting at the secretariat to resolve the impasse. However, the invitation, sent by the state health secretary, was deemed "insulting" by the protesting doctors, news agency PTI reported. They also expressed displeasure at the restriction limiting the number of representatives allowed to attend the meeting to 10, describing it as "humiliating."
"The email has come from the health secretary, and this is insulting for us," the doctors said, as quoted by NDTV. "We think it is insulting to call for a small delegation team. We are near the Swastha Bhavan. What was the need to email us? He could have come to meet us... We have five demands and we want these demands to be met," they added.
Dr. Debasish Halder, a leader of the protesting doctors, criticised the tone of the communication from the Chief Minister's office. "The language of the communication is not only disrespectful to us doctors, it’s downright insensitive. We find no reason to reply to this mail," he stated, as per PTI. Dr. Halder also indicated that the protests and the ‘cease work’ would continue, suggesting yet another night-long sit-in before the state health headquarters.
Addressing the media at 'Nabanna', Bengal’s Minister of State for Health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, claimed that the Chief Minister had taken a "positive approach" by extending an olive branch to the agitating medics. "The email was sent to the official ID of the Junior Doctors’ Front at around 6.10 PM. The Chief Minister was waiting for the doctors’ delegation to come for the meeting. She left her office at 7.30 PM since there was no response from the protesters," Bhattacharya said.
"She has always been requesting the junior doctors to come back to their services because this is a service for the common people and they should not be deprived, but we find that it has not been done," the minister remarked.
Kolkata Doctors March To 'Swasthya Bhavan', Vow To Continue 'Cease Work'
On Tuesday, the protesting doctors marched to 'Swasthya Bhavan'—the headquarters of the health department in Salt Lake—carrying brooms and a model human brain as symbols of their intent to "clean up" the state health sector. The protest culminated in a sit-in outside the office building.
"We are protesting outside Swasthya Bhavan, so what was the need of the Principal Secretary to communicate with us through e-mail? We are ready for dialogue. We have clearly conveyed our demands to all... We will continue to protest until our demands are fulfilled," one of the agitating junior doctors in Kolkata.
On Monday, the Supreme Court directed the resident doctors to resume work by 5 PM on Tuesday, warning that continued abstention could lead to adverse action. Despite this, the doctors defied the court's order, insisting they would not return to work until their demands were met.
In a late evening development, the North Bengal Medical College in Siliguri expelled five third-year MBBS students for allegedly threatening officials and other students, and ordered them to vacate the hostel and leave the medical college premises, PTI reported.
The RG Kar hospital authorities have issued notices to 51 doctors, including senior residents and professors, accusing them of fostering intimidation and disrupting the institution's democratic atmosphere. These individuals have been summoned to an inquiry committee scheduled for September 11, according to PTI.
The strike, which began on August 9 following the discovery of a female trainee doctor's body in the seminar room of RG Kar Hospital, has severely impacted healthcare services across state-run hospitals in West Bengal. The state government has claimed in the Supreme Court that the strike has resulted in the deaths of 23 patients and has significantly disrupted the healthcare delivery system.
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RG Kar ‘Financial Irregularities’ Case: Sandip Ghosh, 3 Others Sent To Judicial Custody Till Sep 23
On the same day, Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, was remanded to judicial custody till September 23 by a special CBI court in connection with a financial irregularities case. Along with Ghosh, his security personnel Afsar Ali, medical equipment vendor Biplab Singha, and pharmacy shop owner Suman Hazara were also sent to judicial custody. The accused were previously in CBI custody for eight days, during which investigators gathered significant digital evidence related to the alleged crime.
Chaotic scenes unfolded at the Alipore Court premises when Ghosh and the others were presented before the judge. Women lawyers shouted slogans demanding that the accused be hanged for their alleged involvement in abetting the rape and murder of the trainee doctor. The police had to seek the assistance of central paramilitary forces to control the situation.