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Kolkata rape-murder case: Docs call off strike, start essential services

By, Kolkata
Sep 20, 2024 07:07 AM IST

Junior doctors in West Bengal will partially end their strike, resuming essential services after 41 days, while demanding safety measures and justice.

Junior doctors in West Bengal on Thursday evening decided to partially withdraw their strike and resume essential services, marking a major breakthrough in the 41-day impasse over the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata last month.

Doctors protesting for justice to the victim of the rape and murder at the RG Kar Hospital incident, called off their strike on Thursday. (PTI)
Doctors protesting for justice to the victim of the rape and murder at the RG Kar Hospital incident, called off their strike on Thursday. (PTI)

Doctors said they will march on Friday from Kolkata’s Swasthya Bhavan, outside which they have been holding a sit-in protest for the last 10 days, to the CGO complex, where the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is located, and later revoke their agitation, for now.

“We will resume essential services from Saturday. We will also end the sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan, headquarters of the state health department, on Friday by organising a mega rally,” Aniket Mahata, one of the protesters, told reporters.

The decision came hours after chief secretary Manoj Pant issued a set of 10 directives to ensure the safety, security and efficient functioning of the state health care system on Thursday. These were among the five demands of the junior doctors.

There was no response from the state government or the ruling Trinamool Congress till reports last came in.

The doctors said they were returning to work in light of the floods that have inundated vast swathes of southern Bengal and displaced several thousand people, killing at least two.

Read more: 'Daughter would have been alive had...': Kolkata victim's father accuses Mamata Banerjee of inaction

But they also said that they will form a standard operating protocol to determine what constitutes essential services, indicating that they would not resume all medical services such as hospital outpatient departments.

“The junior doctors will resume the essential services in the various departments of state-run medical colleges and hospitals. After Friday’s rally, we will return to our respective medical colleges and draw SOPs to resume essential services. The cease work in OPDs will, however, continue,” said Debasish Halder, another junior doctor.

The doctors have given a seven-day ultimatum to the government to implement the directives. The Supreme Court is likely to hear the matter next on September 27.

“Even though some directives have been issued, no deadline has been set to implement them. We will wait till September 27 when the case comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court again. If by then, the state fails to implement the directives, we may again start a full-fledged cease work. That time the movement will be more intense as we will take it to every medical college and hospital,” said Halder.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which is spearheading the month-long protests, also decided to open Abhaya Clinics to help the victims in flood-hit areas as a “moral responsibility”. These clinics would start from Friday.

“We want to tell the state government that the fight will continue in the Supreme Court, which is hearing the RG Kar rape and murder case and also on the streets, so that another RG Kar-like incident doesn’t happen. We will announce specific programmes and a road map for this,” Mahata said.

The doctors said they had achieved partial victories, but added that more was to be done by the state. They also refuted allegations that the fight had veered away from justice for the victim.

“Sandip Ghosh, ex-principal of the RG Kar Hospital, and Abhijit Mondal, officer in charge of Tala police station, have been arrested and Ghosh’s registration has been cancelled by the state medical council. These are big victories of the protest. The state has issued some specific directives related to safety and security,” said Mahata.

Junior doctors across the state have been on strike since August 9 demanding justice for the junior doctor who was raped and murdered in RG Kar Hospital last month. The incident triggered a nationwide uproar.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court asked the doctors to return to work by 5pm on September 10. But the agitators defied the deadline, saying their demands hadn’t been met.

The body of a second-year postgraduate student, who was allegedly raped and murdered inside a seminar hall of the hospital, was found on August 9. The crime took place at the third-floor seminar hall of the chest department late at night and police later said that multiple lacerations and wounds were found on her body.

A 31-year-old civic volunteer with the police, Sanjay Roy, was arrested the next day in connection with the case and was sent to 14-day police custody. The investigation was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which later arrested Sandip Ghosh, former principal of RG Kar and Abhijit Mondal, officer-in-charge of Tala police station on charges of tampering evidence and delay in registering FIR.

Since the gruesome crime, protests have swept Kolkata as agitators have alleged a string of missteps by the state administration and actions by Ghosh and the city police to tamper with evidence. The government has denied all allegations.

Talks between the state government and the striking medics failed to take off at least twice last week. On Saturday, the chief minister went to the protest site to meet the doctors, saying that it was her last attempt to end the deadlock. Talks were finally held on Monday evening at Banerjee’s house in Kalighat, and lasted nearly six hours.

A day later, Banerjee replaced the Kolkata Police commissioner and three other senior police and health department officials. But the doctors refused to call off their strike, saying all their demands were not met.

On Wednesday, the protesters met Pant again but there was no breakthrough.

On Thursday, Pant issued a new order with 10 directives, including adequate on-duty rooms and washrooms, CCTVs in hospitals, security audit in all medical colleges and hospitals by a retired IPS officer, internal complaint committees in hospitals to be made functional, adequate police deployment in health facilities, a centralised helpline for safety and security of health care professionals, a panic button alarm system, a centrally monitored real time bed availability information system, a centralised referral system, and filling up of vacancies and a grievance redressal system.

Doctors acknowledged the step but reiterated their five-point charter of demands. This included justice for the doctor; action against all officials responsible for alleged tampering of the evidence; action against former RG Kar Hospital principal Sandip Ghosh; the resignation of Goyal; and the creation of a safe environment for doctors in medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal.

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