Kolkata. The junior doctors, who have been on strike and protesting for 32 days against the rape and brutal murder of a junior doctor of RG Kar Hospital, have laid down conditions for talks with the West Bengal government. They have said that the talks should be held in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and that the talks should be live-streamed, that is, the doctors want their talks with the government to be broadcast live, which the entire state can see. They do not want just a recording of the talks, but a live broadcast.
It is noteworthy that the Supreme Court had given time till 5 pm on September 10 to end the ongoing strike of doctors against the incident that happened on August 9 and said that after that the state government is free to take action. But the doctors have not ended the strike. Now they are ready to talk to the government but they have laid down four conditions. The striking junior doctors agreed to talk to the government on Wednesday and sent an email to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking a meeting time.
Earlier on Tuesday, September 10, the state government had called the doctors for talks. They were sent an email by the health department. However, the junior doctors refused to come to the meeting. They said – the one whose resignation we are demanding is the one calling us for the meeting. In that too, the government called only 10 doctors. This is an insult to the movement. Despite the doctors’ refusal, Mamata waited for them for about one and a half hours. Finally, when the doctors did not come, Mamata returned. It is worth noting that the striking doctors are demanding the resignation of the state’s health secretary.
However, the doctors agreed to hold talks with the government on the 32nd day of the strike but they have four conditions. They want that 30 junior doctors should be allowed to attend the meeting and the meeting should be held in Nabanna i.e. the state secretariat. The second demand is that it should be live streamed for transparency. The third demand is that the entire focus of the meeting should be on the five demands of the junior doctors and the fourth condition is that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee must attend the meeting.