Protesting doctors reject Mamata's invite for talks

Taking exception to the “language of the email”, agitating junior doctors on Tuesday rejected West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's invitation for talks at the state secretariat to resolve the impasse over the RG Kar hospital issue.

“Your small delegation (maximum 10 persons) may visit ‘Nabanna' now to meet government representatives,” the email sent by the state's Health Secretary NS Nigam to the protesting medics on Tuesday evening had stated.

“The language of the communication is not only disrespectful to us doctors, it's downright insensitive. We find no reason to reply to this mail,” Dr Debasish Halder, a leader of the protesting doctors who organised a sit-in before the state health department headquarters at ‘Swasthya Bhavan' in Salt Lake, said.

The doctors conveyed that although “doors remain open” for talks with the state's highest authorities, they would continue with their agitation till their demands are met.

The protesting doctors of state-run health care facilities, currently on ‘cease work' for over a month to protest the alleged rape and murder of the RG Kar hospital medic, defied the 5 pm deadline set by the Supreme Court to return to work, and conveyed their intentions to stay put before the ‘Swasthya Bhavan' and keep pressing for their demands.

In ‘clean up Swasthya Bhavan’ march earlier in the day, the stirring doctors demanded the resignations of the Health Secretary, Director of Health Education (DHE), and Director of Health Services (DHS), besides pressing for marching orders to Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal as part of their five-point demand charter.

The protesters had, on their part, too, set a 5 pm deadline coinciding with the time frame of the apex court, for the state administration to act on their demands.

Addressing the media shortly after 7.30 pm from ‘Nabanna', Bengal's Minister of State for Health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, claimed that the chief minister had taken a “positive approach” by extending an olive branch to the agitating medics.

The CM is also in charge of the state's health portfolio.

“The email was sent to the official ID of the Junior Doctors' Front at around 6.10 pm. The chief minister was waiting for the doctors' delegation to come for the meeting. She left her office at 7.30 pm since there was no response from the protesters,” Bhattacharya said.

The doctors, though, said they found the language of the mail humiliating since the government restricted the number of representatives to 10.

“Moreover, this email never came from the state secretariat. It was sent to us by the health secretary, whose resignation we seek. This is an insult,” Halder said.

“Our protests and our ‘cease work' will continue," he asserted, indicating yet another night-long sit-in before the state health headquarters.