RG Kar Murder Case: Doctors Demand Live Broadcast, CM Mamata's Presence As Precondition For Talks

A junior doctor addresses during the second day of their sit-in demonstration in front of Swasthya Bhawan over RG Kar Hospital rape-murder case, in Kolkata on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)

RG Kar Rape-Murder Case: In fresh developments pertaining to the rape and murder case of a trainee doctor in Kolkata's RG Kar medical college and hospital, the stalemate over talks between the West Bengal government and the junior doctors continued on Wednesday. The medics are protesting outside the Swasthya Bhavan in support of their demands. After the Mamata Banerjee-led government invited the junior doctors for a meeting, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum (WBJDF) set fresh conditions for holding discussions.

The doctors insisted that the discussion be held in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s presence and should be broadcast live. The junior doctors have been on a cease-work for over a month. On Wednesday afternoon, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant made an appeal to the protesting doctors to send a delegation of 12–15 representatives to state secretariat Nabanna by 6 p.m. on Wednesday for discussions.

In reply, the junior doctors' forum said that they want to send a delegation of at least 30 representatives, including one from each of the 26 medical colleges in the state. The forum also demaded a live telecast of the meeting.

The junior doctors' email reply read, "In reference to the email sent from cs-westbengal@nic.in, we would like to mention few points regarding the proposed meeting. As mentioned in our previous mail, we would like to reiterate some points. 1) We want to send a delegate team of at least 30 representatives. 2) We want the meeting to be live telecasted for the sake of transparency among all parties. 3) We want the meeting to be based around our 5-point demands. 4) We are re-emphasising our point that we want our discussion to be in the presence of the Hon'ble Chief Minister. We are waiting for your positive response."

The protesting medics are seeking the removal of top officials in the state health department, including the Health Secretary, Director of Health Services, and Director of Medical Education.

On Tuesday, a similar appeal for talks was sent by Health Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam, but it was rejected by the protesting doctors, who questioned the rationale behind the appeal coming from the same person whose suspension was among their primary demands.

“One of our main demands is the suspension of Health Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam. Yet, the email for a meeting on our demands came from the same Health Secretary's office, which is insulting," a junior doctor said on Tuesday, as quoted by IANS.

(With agencies inputs)