Kolkata Rape, Murder Incident: Strike By Junior Doctors Continue
- By Thetripurapost Desk, Kolkata
- Sep 10, 2024
- 369
The strike by junior doctors, protesting the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, continued for the 31st day on Tuesday.
Doctors took out a march from Karunamoyee (Salt Lake) to Swasthya Bhavan. Their demand is that the state health secretary be dismissed. Earlier, there was a demand to suspend the Kolkata Police Commissioner.
In the hearing on September 9, the Supreme Court had asked the doctors to return to work before 5 pm on September 10. The court had asked the state government to take action against the doctors if they did not obey the order.
The junior doctors refused to obey the Supreme Court's order. They said that they and the victim have not got justice, so they will not return to work. Their protest continued even after the deadline was over.
After this, the Secretary of the Health Department called the junior doctors for talks. He sent an email to the doctors and asked them to send 10 representatives. The doctors refused to attend this meeting.
The doctors said that the person whose resignation we are demanding is the one who is calling the meeting. This is an insult to us. The doctors also said that calling only 10 doctors to the meeting is also an insult to us.
The state government wants to stop our protest by any means. They are trying to defame us. They say that people are dying due to the strike of junior doctors. Let us tell you that patient services are running in every medical college of the state. Senior doctors are at work.
There are 245 government hospitals in the state, out of which only 26 are medical colleges. The number of junior doctors is less than 7,500. Whereas there are 93,000 registered doctors. In such a situation, how can the medical service collapse due to just a few junior doctors going on strike. The government is spreading lies and misleading the Supreme Court.
The Mamata government has blamed us for the violence that took place during a political event on August 27. We want to remind them that we had said on August 26 that we had nothing to do with that event. We do not support any violent incident and will not do so in the future either.
Even after 30 days of the incident, the state government has not taken any major step regarding the main demands of the movement. They are trying to put all the blame on the CBI investigation. No action has been taken regarding the negligence of the police or the corruption in the health department. The decision to suspend Sandeep Ghosh seems like a mere whitewash.
From the first day of the agitation, we have raised demands related to security. We have demanded separate rest rooms and bathrooms for on-duty doctors, adequate security personnel, CCTVs and female security personnel for women. Just increasing police presence and separate rooms for doctors will not ensure security.
From the Chief Minister's press statement, we came to know that the Police Commissioner had offered to resign. He himself has admitted negligence in the investigation, so why was his resignation not accepted? Is the job of the police only to control the crowd during festivals? Will such a police force be able to protect women?
Meanwhile, the Inquiry Committee of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital has issued notices to 51 doctors on Tuesday and summoned them for questioning on Wednesday (September 11) .
These doctors are accused of promoting a culture of fear in the college and endangering the democratic environment. These doctors will have to prove their innocence before the hospital administration.
The Special Council Committee of RG Kar Hospital has decided that these 51 doctors should not be allowed to enter the campus until the Inquiry Committee calls them for questioning.
Meanwhile, the CBI's judicial custody of ex-principal of RG Kar Medical College, Sandeep Ghosh, has been extended till September 23. He has been arrested on charges of financial irregularities in the college