Junior doctors held a torch rally on Sunday demanding justice for the rape-murder victim of RG Kar Medical College.
The Supreme Court will hear the rape-murder case of a trainee doctor in Kolkata today. In this hearing, the state government will respond regarding safety and security at the workplace.
The junior doctors say that if they are not satisfied with the state government's response, they will go on strike again. Before this, doctors went on strike for 42 days between August 10 and September 21.
In fact, after the death of a patient on September 27, a case of thrashing of 3 doctors and 3 nurses at Kolkata's Sagar Dutta Hospital came to light. Junior doctors are upset with this incident.
Doctors staged demonstrations in the hospital. Four doctors protesting in this matter have been detained. Doctors demand that they be given security in hospitals, so that they can work without fear.
The doctor said – our meeting with the government was not taken seriously On Saturday, a doctor said that the state government has completely failed to provide us security. That is why Sagar Dutta Hospital was attacked on Friday. We are giving Mamata government some time. We will take a decision after the hearing in the Supreme Court at 5 pm on Monday.
It seems that our meetings with the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary were not taken seriously. Family members of patients are threatening one of our female colleagues. They are saying that whatever happened in RG Kar Hospital will happen again. How can these people make such threats?
Mamata and the doctors were asked to return to work. There was a struggle for 7 days over the meeting of the doctors and Mamata in Kolkata. After four attempts failed, a meeting of Mamata and a delegation of doctors was held at CM House on September 16. In this meeting, Mamata accepted 3 out of 5 demands of the doctors and asked them to return to work.
On the demand of doctors, the Bengal government removed Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal from the post. He was replaced by Manoj Verma. Four more officials of the health department have also been transferred. Apart from this, the posts of 5 more police officers were also changed.
On September 19, the doctors decided to end the strike. The junior doctors said that the Kolkata Police Commissioner, Director of Medical Education and Director of Health Services have been removed on our demand. However, this does not mean that the movement is over. Our demand for the removal of Health Secretary NS Nigam and an end to the culture of intimidation in hospitals continues.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).