Kolkata: Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee said that they have accepted 99 per cent of the doctors’ demands, “because they are our younger brothers”. After meeting with the protesting junior doctors, has announced that she had agreed to three of the five demands of the protesting doctors — the removal of two top officials of the health department and the Chief of Kolkata police. Along with it, the police chief of the city’s north zone — where RG Kar Medical College, the hospital where the rape-murder of a young doctor took place, is located — will also be removed. Though the impasse is solved, the protest and the cease work is expected to continue till the formal orders are issued in the morning. The Chief Minister said that she thought the meeting was positive as the minutes of meeting was signed by the Government as well as the protesting doctors. “I know they say they will go and discuss and then will decide on lifting the cease work. 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 said.
The announcement is seen as a capitulation of sorts. The atmosphere at the protest site after the doctors returned was festive. The junior doctors declared that the state’s acceptance of their demands was a “big victory” of their 38-day protest. As for lifting the protest and the casework, that can only be done when the government delivers, they said. “We have only received their verbal assurance,” said a representative of the Junior Doctors’ Forum. But even so, their other aim — the destruction of the nexus of corruption at the hospital – remains, they said. “We will also continue the agitation for the removal of the health secretary,” added one of the other representatives.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee has accepted the demands for the upgrade in hospital infrastructure and ₹ 100 crore has been earmarked for it.
About the removal of the two health officials — the Director of Medical Education and the Director of the Health Services — Ms Banerjee said they would be given transfers to proper posts. “We are not dishonouring them. They have not been in the post for long and have done nothing wrong. But since the students said they do not have trust in them, we have accepted,” Ms Banerjee said. The Chief Minister had earlier said that city police chief Vineet Goyal would be retained for at least the Durga puja. He had asked to resign several times, but she wanted him to stay back, she had said. The demand for Mr Goyal’s removal came in view of allegations about the police role in evidence tampering after the rape-murder of August 9. This was commented on multiple times by the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court.
