Kolkata rape-murder: Agitating doctors reach state secretariat to meet Mamata, stick to demand for live telecast

Kolkata: A group of agitating junior doctors reached the West Bengal state secretariat Nabanna to hold talks in presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to resolve the RG Kar hospital impasse.

Escorted by a pilot police vehicle, the delegation reached the secretariat at around 5.25 pm, some 25 minutes past the scheduled time of commencement of the meeting.

Earlier, although welcoming the Bengal government’s “positive response” to hold talks in presence of Banerjee to resolve the issue, the doctors stuck to their demands of sending a 30-member delegation instead of 15 people as mandated by the state government.

Sticking to their original demand, 30 medics went to Nabanna.

Before starting from their sit-in spot outside Swasthya Bhavan, the health department headquarters, the protesters stated they would not settle for anything less than a live stream of the talks, which had earlier been rejected by the state chief secretary in its latest invitation for the meeting.

“We welcome the chief secretary’s invitation and confirmation that the CM would be present at the meeting. We will attend the meeting with an open mind, but it has to be centred around the issue of providing justice to our colleague and ensuring security for doctors across the state,” a protesting doctor said.

The junior doctors said they had replied to the state government’s email confirming their attendance at the meeting around 3.45 pm.

“There are doctors from 26 medical colleges in the state who are participating in this protest movement. Even if we choose one member from each college, it is not possible to have a delegation of less than 30 people,” the medic said and confirmed that they have already arranged a bus for transporting the delegation to the secretariat.

The doctors insisted on having a live stream of the proceedings of the proposed meeting on grounds that they “have nothing to hide”.

“Moreover, thousands of junior doctors are simultaneously holding protests in far-flung districts of Bengal. They should know what is happening at the meeting. If the CM can hold her administrative meetings in districts on live TV and if Supreme Court proceedings can be telecast live, we see no reason why the same can’t happen here,” the doctor said.