Kolkata rape-murder: Bengal junior doctors resume cease work stir, to hold march on Wednesday

Kolkata: The junior doctors at the government medical college and hospitals in West Bengal on Tuesday resumed the ‘cease work’ stir, which they had launched immediately after one of their colleagues had been raped and murdered at her workplace on August 9 but had paused on September 21.

The protesting medics also slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its ‘tardiness’ in probing the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

The junior doctors went into a huddle after the Supreme Court on Monday noted that they should provide healthcare services to both the Out-Patient Departments and In-Patient Departments of the hospitals in addition to providing emergency services. The medics, however, had a marathon meeting overnight and decided early in the morning they would restart the complete cease-work in view of the lack of any “positive approach” from the state government to ensure the security of the healthcare providers in the hospitals.

The medics decided to resume the cease-work stir just ahead of the Durga Puja, the biggest festival of the Bengalis. They planned to take out a rally in Kolkata on Wednesday, the day ‘Mahalaya’ would mark the prelude to the festivities in West Bengal. They also urged people from all walks of life to join the rally.

Several civil society organisations and activists across West Bengal also called for cutting down on the festivities during Durga Puja in the state and continuing the protest to seek justice for the young doctor, who was found raped and murdered at the seminar room of the Department of Chest Medicine on the third floor of the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.

Aniket Mahato, one of the leaders of the agitating junior doctors, said that the state government had not shown any positive approach to fulfill their demands to ensure the safety and security of the medics in the public sector hospitals.

“We realised just how slow the CBI's investigation is. We have seen many times before that the CBI has been unable to reach any conclusions, allowing the real culprits of such incidents to go scot-free due to delays in filing charges,” the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Supreme Court has instead only postponed hearings and reduced the actual length of proceedings. We are disappointed and angered by this protracted judicial process.”

To drive home the point that the state government failed to deliver on its promise of ensuring the safety and security of the healthcare workers, the WBJDF cited the recent attack on the doctors and healthcare workers by the members of the family of a patient, who died at a hospital in the outskirts of Kolkata.

Though the senior doctors had been working, the cease work stir by the junior doctors had paralysed the public healthcare system of the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on September 12 stated that at least 27 people had died because they had not been provided timely and adequate medical care at the hospitals run by the state government due to the cease work stir by the junior doctors.

The junior doctors had returned to work a few days after the chief minister had accepted their demands for the removal of Vineet Goyal, who, as the commissioner of Kolkata Police, had allegedly failed to ensure a proper investigation into the rape and murder of the young doctor before the CBI had taken over the probe. Banerjee had also removed two more officials of the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the state government in view of the allegations of rampant corruption, irregularities, and financial misconduct.

Apart from an expeditious probe into the rape and murder of the young doctor and the safety and security of the healthcare workers, the protesting medics, who restarted the cease-work stir, also demanded elections for student councils immediately in every medical college, recognition of Resident Doctors' Association and representation of students and junior doctors in all committees managing colleges and hospitals.

The Supreme Court had on Monday conveyed dissatisfaction over the ‘tardy’ progress by the West Bengal government in installing CCTVs and construction of toilets and separate resting rooms in the government medical colleges. The apex court had directed the state government to complete works by October 15.