The junior doctors of Bengal called off their massive protest over the rape-murder of a colleague at a Kolkata hospital and said they will join work from Saturday. But there was a caveat – they said they will not join OPD services or attend elected operations. These would be resumed once they are assured of the state government’s commitment to the safety issue, they said. The announcement came after the state had accepted most of their demands — and amid massive floods in south Bengal where health services have become a priority. 

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been on a tour of the flood-hit areas since yesterday. It was the Chief Secretary who attended the last meeting with the doctors on Wednesday and accepted their demands and suggestions regarding security. 

Earlier today, he wrote to the Principal Secretary, giving detailed instructions which included ensuring adequate availability of on-duty rooms, washrooms, CCTVs, deployment of police and security personnel which would include women, mobile police teams for surveillance at night, central helpline and panic buttons and alarms.  

The official has also ordered an audit of  security at all state-run medical institutions.

The doctors made it clear that this partial return to work is not by any means an end to their agitation. “If needed, we will begin ceasework again,” said a representative of the junior doctors. The legal battle will also continue, as would their demand for a quick resolution of the rape-murder of a 31-year-old doctor that is at the heart of the protest. 

The end of this phase of protest will be marked by a march from the protest site to the CGO Complex, where the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation is located. 

The resolution of the 41-day impasse with the state government was set in motion on Monday, with the doctors sitting face-to-face with the Chief Minister after three failed attempts. 

Ms Banerjee had immediately announced the removal of Kolkata police chief Vineet Goyal and two top officials of the health department. The doctors, though, are still pushing for the removal of the health secretary. 

“I know they say they will go and discuss and then will decide on lifting the ceasework. But I have requested them to do so, citing the condition of patients, especially in view of the floods in some of the districts,” the Chief Minister had said after the meeting.

The doctors had declared that meeting a “partial success” and said the government was capitulating in face of the protests that was buttressed by thousands of the residents of the city.

The 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College on August 9. The prime suspect is Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, who was stationed at the police outpost at the hospital and had access to all departments.

The protests that started at the hospital the next day soon snowballed, drawing in  the civil society and leading to a massive logjam with the state government that could not be resolved even by a “back to work’ order by the Supreme Court. Mamata Banerjee said though the court order has empowered her to use strong-arm tactics, she would not do so, since she did not support “Emergency’.

The logjam was caused by the police investigation that left too many unanswered questions, allegations that the police had forced the cremation despite the parents’ unwillingness and an officer’s offer of money to the woman’s parents to bury the case. The officer concerned has been removed as well. 

It was followed by the state’s transfer order for Principal Sandip Ghosh, hours after he resigned from the post under pressure of public opinion. 

The sequence of events led to spiralling protests that spread across the country, already outraged over the shocking crime.

Kolkata:

The protesting junior doctors of Bengal have alleged that they had accepted all the conditions laid down by the state government — to the extent of scaling down their demands from live transmission of the meeting to accepting the minutes — but were turned down by the government at the last minute.

“We kept waiting in the rain, but we had to return without any solution and all the junior doctors were disheartened,” said Dr Aqeeb, who was part of the delegation that went to meet Ms Banerjee.

The meeting was scheduled yesterday after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee went to the protest site at the health secretariat and invited them to her home.

But their arrival was followed by another argument over live transmission of the proceedings. In between, the Chief Minister came and assured them that they would be given a copy of the video recording after the Supreme Court proceedings are over. She also invited them in for tea even if they refused to take part in the discussions.

The doctors refused, raising demands for justice. Post-9 pm, when they finally were on board with the idea of having minutes of the meeting, signed by both sides, they were told it was too late.

By then, the news had come about the arrest of former RG Kar hospital Principal Sandip Ghosh and a local police officer, Abhijit Mondal. The Central Bureau of investigation had arrested them for alleged evidence tampering in connection with the rape-murder case of a young doctor that is at the heart of the protest.  

With the doctors failing to reach a decision, the Chief Minister went inside her two-room accommodation, saying since the doctors would not come in for discussions or tea, she would continue with her work.

“The junior doctors said that we would have tea only if justice will be delivered. We later gave up on the demand of recording as well and just asked for the minutes of the meeting, but we were told that there had been a delay and nothing could be done now,” said Dr Aqeeb, who was part of the delegation that went to meet Ms Banerjee.

The BJP alleged that Ms Banerjee called off the meeting with the doctors because she was “demoralised” by the arrests. “She apprehends that the next person in the queue may be Vineet Goyal. That’s why CM asked Chandrima Bhattacharya and Manoj Pant to call off the Meeting,” posted the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

On September 13, the junior doctors had criticised the Chief Minister for rejecting their request to live telecast the meeting and left from outside the state secretariat where they had gone to meet her. They argued that their request was reasonable, since parliamentary discussions and many administrative meetings are broadcast live.

They also expressed frustration at being asked to leave their phones and other electronic gadgets outside the meeting hall.

The government has maintained that the proceedings cannot be telecast live since the matter is pending in the Supreme Court — an argument that has not been accepted by the doctors.