West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and Home Secretary Nandini Chakraborty visited the demonstration site where junior doctors are on fast.
Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has appealed to doctors to end their hunger strike against the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata. He said that most of the demands of the doctors have been met, but rejected the demand to remove the health secretary.
Mamata said- 'Everyone has the right to protest, but health services should not be affected. It is not possible to delete everyone in the same section at once. We have already removed DHS and DME, so stay away from politics and get back to work.
The junior doctors have been on hunger strike for the past 15 days demanding justice for the trainee doctor and improvement in medical facilities. So far, six doctors have been hospitalized due to ill health. While eight others are on indefinite fast. The doctor has demanded that the state government take concrete steps to solve the problem by October 21.
In North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, junior doctors staged a march to protest the RG Kar rape-murder incident.
Mamata Banerjee will meet the doctors on Monday
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Saturday evening invited the doctors to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a 45-minute meeting at the state secretariat. However, he appealed to the doctors to call off the hunger strike. In response, the doctors refused to end their hunger strike until all their demands were met, but agreed to attend the meeting.
Mamata said- Is it right that the doctor decides who should be removed?
Mamata Banerjee also requested the doctors to end their hunger strike and meet on Monday. “I have removed the Commissioner of Police (CP), Director of Medical Education (DME), and Director of Health Services (DHS), but I cannot remove the entire department,” he said.
He asked, 'Is it right that you decide which officer should be removed? Some demands require policy making and the government will fully cooperate in this, but we do not allow doctors to dictate to the government what to do.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant met the doctors on hunger strike and tried to convince them to end the strike.
Mamata said to the doctors – forget my position, consider me Didi
Mamata asked the doctors to understand their responsibility and consider the impact of the strike on health services in the state. He said, 'People depend on your treatment. Where will poor people go? They get free treatment in government hospitals. Please forget my position and consider me as your didi. Your demands are legitimate, but you must serve the public.
Doctors across the state will go on strike on October 22
The protesting doctors said that all medical professionals across the state will go on strike on October 22 if their demands are not met. Along with this, the doctors have also decided to organize a big rally on October 20, Sunday.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
