Kolkata, June 15 (IANS): Striking junior doctors in West Bengal on Saturday once again turned down Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s proposal for talks at the state secretariat – Nabanna, and stuck to their stand that she would have to come down to NRS Medical College and Hospital to listen to their grievances.
Thirty four doctors at Kalyani’s Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital also tendered their resignations in solidarity with the state’s government hospital doctors who resigned on Friday, the hospital authorities said.
“Yesterday, the Director Medical Education of West Bengal University of Health Sciences verbally informed us that Chief Minister has asked to meet some of our representatives at her office. For the last two days, the CM has made offensive and inappropriate statements directed towards doctors.
“Following that, we faced mob attacks and physical assaults at different medical and dental colleges and hospitals across the state. We are deeply upset and hopeless and we feel highly insecure and apprehensive about our representatives’ meeting with her behind the closed doors. That is why we are not sending any representative to her office,” Abhishek Sarkar, an intern at the College told reporters after their General Body meeting.
“We want an urgent solution to this situation. We shall resume our duties as soon as our demands for proper security and safety at work place are met.
We humbly request the Chief Minister to meet all of us at NRS Medical College and Hospital and discuss and implement all our demands at the earliest,” said Sarkar reading out a statement by the agitating doctors.
The invite from the Chief Minister’s secretariat to the junior doctors was sent after five senior doctors, led by Sukumar Mukherjee, called on Banerjee and offered to mediate to resolve the stalemate, which has paralysed medical services at the state’s government hospitals.
After the offer was declined, the talks were deferred till 5 p.m. on Saturday, so as to give the quintet of veterans time enough to persuade the medicos to attend the meeting.
Meanwhile, health services in West Bengal’s state-run hospitals remained partially disrupted on Saturday as the “cease work” by junior doctors, protesting against attacks on their colleagues and demanding adequate security measures, continued for the fifth day.
Though the out-patient departments remained closed, the emergency services in all the state-run hospitals, including the NRS, were functional on Saturday, doctors said.
“The junior doctors are still on strike, but the emergency services are open,” West Bengal Doctors Forum President Arjun Sengupta told IANS.
Indian Medical Association (IMA) President Santanu Sen on Friday held a meeting with the senior doctors and administrative authorities at the NRS Hospital to find a possible solution to the ongoing impasse.
However, the agitating doctors claimed that the meeting would not bear any positive outcome because Sen was a Rajya Sabha MP of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress.
Mamata appeals to doctors again, says ESMA won’t be invoked
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday again appealed to the agitating junior doctors in the state to end their strike, assuring them that her government would not invoke ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) against them. She said the state government is working to find a “peaceful solution” to the problem, and that it is ready to consider demands put forward by the doctors for their security inside hospitals.
“I have already appealed to everyone related to the medical fraternity to end the impasse for the sake of the ailing patients. I would again appeal to the junior doctors to end the agitation. We are always open to discussion,” Banerjee said at the state secretariat, Nabanna.
“Yesterday (Friday) I had waited for taks with the junior doctors for nearly five hours, but they did not arrive. They told senior doctors that they would come today. So I along with my team of administrators waited for them. But they have not come today either. I would appeal everyone to join the work,” she said.
Citing examples of several states such as Delhi, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu which had invoked ESMA to break the doctors’ movement, Banerjee promised her government would not initiate any such administrative steps.
“So many states already used this Act because the profession of doctors is considered noble. Our government, too, has the provision. But we want to deal with the issue in a humanitarian and democratic way. So, we have neither invoked ESMA nor cancelled anybody’s registration, or arrested anybody,” she said.
When asked whether she would go to the NRS Medical College and Hospital, the epicentre of the doctor’s movement, as per the demand of the agitators, Banerjee refused to answer.
“I will not tell you whether I will go somewhere or not. I think the state secretariat is the best place to hold a meeting with government officials in a democratic manner. I had gone to SSKM Hospital that day and waited for three hours, but no one came to talk to me,” she said.
“One should respect institutions… when the government is calling them to hold a discussion, they continue to refuse… I wanted to talk to them over phone after the incident, but they refused to talk. Senior government officials also went to talk and asked them to come, but they refused,” she alleged, adding all actions have been taken by the state administration.
