Kolkata: Senior doctors in government hospitals across West Bengal are resigning in support of the agitating junior doctors thereby intensifying the ongoing stir. Till Wednesday night, a total of 106 doctors and faculty at RG Kar hospital have tendered their resignation. During the day, 19 doctors from Jalpaiguri Medical College and Hospital, 42 from North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, Siliguri, 35 from Calcutta National Medical College and Hospital and around 70 doctors from Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata tendered their resignations. Meanwhile, a late-night meeting between the state government and agitating junior doctors failed to resolve the impasse.
On Wednesday evening, state chief secretary Manoj Pant invited a delegation of “eight to ten” junior doctors for talks with the state task force at the Swasthya Bhavan. The meeting, which was scheduled to start at 7.45 pm, commenced around 9.45pm. A delegation of 29 junior doctors went to attend the meeting chaired by the chief secretary, and also attended by state’s home secretary, director general of police (DGP) and members of recently constituted state level grievance redressal committee. However, it failed to break ice between the agitating junior doctors and the state government.
One of the junior doctors who attended the meeting said “Except for some verbal assurances we got nothing from this meeting. We requested the government to issue some directives or at least give us a timeline as to when our demands will be met. They declined. The government only wanted us to withdraw the hunger strike. Our colleagues are on hunger strike for around 100 hours now. The government, however, said that they will do an assessment after the puja. We are totally frustrated.”