After the West Bengal government invited agitating doctors for a meeting to resolve the impasse over their ‘cease work’ strike, the protesting medics reverted with a list of their demands for the government, and asked the authorities to confirm chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s presence in the meeting.
The doctors also demanded a live telecast of the meeting.
This comes as the doctors and medical students in West Bengal refused to abide by the Supreme Court’s Tuesday deadline and continue to cease work, expressing their outrage over the brutal rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital last month.
The government’s invitation, sent via email at 3:49 am on Wednesday, proposed a discussion at the state secretariat, Nabanna, at 6 pm the same day. However, the invitation did not confirm if CM Mamata Banerjee would be present during the discussion.
In the invitation, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant urged the doctors to send a delegation of 12 to 15 members to the meeting. He also mentioned the doctors surpassing the deadline set by the Supreme Court to return to work.
Despite the invitation, the junior doctors set few pre-conditions for talks. “There are several points that need to be discussed before we decide whether to accept the invitation to Nabanna or not,” one of the doctors said.
Submitting a list of demands to the state government, the protesting doctors said that the delegation must consist of at least 30 representatives as many associations and hospitals are involved in the protests.
“We want the discussion to be held in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and be telecast live. We want at least 30 representatives as this movement is spread across various medical colleges and hospitals,” a member of the junior doctors’ forum said at a press conference.
In a separate communication sent earlier in the day, the doctors said that the meeting can be held anytime, anywhere provided it is streamed live for all to watch. They also said that if they accept the invitation for the meeting, “they will attend it without any pre-conclusion.”
On August 9, the body of a postgraduate doctor was found inside the seminar hall of the RG Kar Medical College, with the autopsy report confirming rape and murder.
(With inputs from PTI)
