Kolkata, Sep 14: West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum (WBJDF) has accepted the fresh talk invitation from the state government and decided to send a 30-member delegation to the Chief Minister’s residence for the negotiations with the government over the rape and murder of RG Kar Hospital’s female doctor.
The meeting between the doctors and government officials is scheduled for 6 pm at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence in South Kolkata. “A delegation of 30 representatives will be going there. Our agenda is to discuss the five points which we are demanding,” said a protesting junior doctor.
One of their major demands is the suspension of the Health Secretary, Director of Health Services and Director of Medical Education. However, the doctors did not make it clear whether they will continue to insist on a live telecast of the meeting, the issue on which the earlier meeting on Thursday did not fructify. They said that they would stick to the demand for transparency in the meeting. The doctors have also expressed displeasure over the venue of the meeting.
“We thought that the meeting would be conducted at an administrative venue. But it has been called at the Chief Minister’s residence. Probably the administration thought that we would be avoiding the meeting on this ground. But we will not do so,” the doctors said.
Earlier, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant informed WBJDF that a fresh meeting at the official residence of the Chief Minister has been called to listen to the demands of the doctors. On Saturday morning, the Chief Minister suddenly reached the spot of the sit-in demonstration by doctors and promised to consider their demands in a gradual manner provided the protesting doctors go back to their duties. Without getting into dialogue with protesting doctors, the Chief Minister addressed them for five minutes and described her arrival as her last attempt to enter into “constructive dialogues” with the protesters.
The earlier meeting on Thursday convened at the state secretariat Nabanna failed as the state government refused to accept the doctors’ demand for live- telecast. A delegation of 30 junior doctors reached the doorsteps of the state secretariat but had to go back without attending the meeting.
IANS