BJP bandh evokes mixed response in Bengal amid sporadic violence; Junior
doctors in Bengal reject Mamata’s appeal to end ceasework
KOLKATA, Aug 28: Asserting that her government has zero tolerance for incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state Assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
Speaking at the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad’s foundation day rally here, Banerjee said she would sit for dharna outside Raj Bhavan here if the governor delays in giving assent to the amended Bill or forwards it to the President for ratification.
Banerjee also urged the agitating junior doctors of Bengal, who are on cease-work for 20 days now to protest the alleged rape-murder of the RG Kar hospital medic, to urgently consider returning to duty and said she doesn’t want to lodge FIRs against the striking doctors in consideration of their future careers.
The TMC supremo dedicated the foundation day to the memory of the medic who was allegedly raped and murdered inside state-run earlier this month, triggering a nationwide outcry.
Agitating doctors interpreted the chief minister’s remark as a “veiled threat” and rejected her appeal to join work.
A member of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum said they would not withdraw the agitation unless their demands for justice for the deceased and punishment for all responsible were met.
The chief minister also said the TMC will launch a movement from Saturday at the grassroots level to create pressure on the Centre to pass a legislation for capital punishment of convicted rapists.
BJP bandh in Bengal evokes mixed response
Sporadic instances of violence marked the BJP-sponsored 12-hour shutdown in West Bengal on Wednesday which had a mixed impact in the wake of bandh supporters clashing with the police and ruling Trinamool Congress workers at several pockets of the state.
The most significant of these clashes was reported from Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas district where the BJP alleged that TMC goons fired multiple rounds on its local leader Priyangu Pandey’s car and shared a purported video of the crime on social media platforms.
Although Pandey escaped unhurt, the vehicle’s driver and a party worker sustained bullet injuries on their heads and were admitted to a private hospital, BJP leaders claimed.
Police said that the two men were beaten up by some people outside the local Anglo-India Jute Mill.
The violence was followed by a showdown between local BJP leader Arjun Singh and his TMC counterpart Somnath Shyam, with both leaders and their supporters standing face to face in altercation further triggering tensions and the police finding it tough to disperse the warring groups.
“Miscreants owing allegiance to the Trinamool Congress fired the shots. If police are not around we will show TMC what people’s power looks like,” Singh said.
Shyam countered by saying that the BJP leader was trying to “incite violence in a peaceful area”.
Several BJP leaders, including former MPs Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya and MLA Agnimitra Paul, were detained for blocking roads and urging people to enforce the bandh since morning.
The ‘Bangla Bandh’, which began at 6 am, was called to protest Tuesday’s police action on participants of ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ or march to the secretariat was organised by the newly formed students’ group Chatra Samaj over the alleged rape and murder of the doctor at RG Kar Hospital. (PTI)
IMA suspends membership of former RG Kar principal
KOLKATA, Aug 28: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Wednesday suspended the membership of former RG Kar Medical College and Hospital principal Dr Sandip Ghosh, amid a CBI probe into the alleged rape and murder of a junior doctor at the Kolkata-based institute earlier this month.
The decision to suspend the IMA membership of Ghosh, who is the vice president of the association’s Kolkata branch, was taken by its disciplinary committee.
In an order, the Indian Medical Association said the committee constituted by IMA national president Dr R V Asokan on Wednesday suo-motu considered the rape and murder case of the postgraduate resident doctor and the subsequent developments at Hospital.
The IMA general secretary along with Asokan had met the victim’s parents at their home, it said. ”They had put up their grievances against you (Ghosh) in dealing with the situation as well as lack of empathy and sensitivity in handling the issue in appropriate manner befitting the responsibility held by you in your dealings with them,” the order said.“The IMA Bengal state branch as well as certain associations’ of doctors also have demanded action citing the nature of disrepute brought by you to the profession on the whole,” it said. (PTI)