RG Kar protest: Junior doctors demand health secretary's resignation, deny govt's meeting invite

The agitating junior doctors of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Tuesday refused to meet the government. The development came while the protesting doctors held a march to Swashtya Bhawan, demanding the resignation of state Health Secretary NS Nigam, Kolkata Police commissioner, director of health education and director of medical education and justice for the victim.

The Mamata Banerjee government had invited the protesting doctors to hold talks in the state Secretariat 'Nabanna' on Tuesday. An email was sent in this regard to the protesting doctors. In the email, Nigam asked 10 junior doctors to come for a meeting in Nabanna. The email read, "Your small delegation (maximum 10 persons) may visit ‘Nabanna’ now to meet government representatives."

However, the protesting doctors refused to attend the meeting, calling it humiliating. They argued that it was an insult to them as only a small delegation was called for the meeting. Earlier during the march towards Swasthya Bhawan in Sector 5 of Salt Lake, the protesting medics showcased brooms and even a model brain, replicating the symbolism of carrying a model spine to Lalbazar last week, in their bid to "clean up" the state health sector and make the top brass "think" about the



plight of the doctors.

Protestors charter of demand

Notably, the protesters had set a deadline of 5 pm for the West Bengal government to accept their charter of five demands. These demands include:

1. Resignation of the Kolkata Police Commissioner

2. Resignation of state Health Secretary

3. Resignation of Director of Health Education (DHE)

4. Resignation  of Director of Health Services (DHS)

5. Justice to rape-murder victim

"We are holding a peaceful march. We have specified our demands for justice for the victim and resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner, the state Health Secretary, Director of Health Education (DHE), and Director of Health Services (DHS). If the state government meets our demands, we will think about joining duty," one of the protesting doctors said.

"We want the state government to 'clean' the health sector. We are carrying the brooms to initiate the cleaning programme. We will wait till 5 pm for the state to fulfill our demands, failing which we will start a sit-in. We are, however, open to any kind of discussion with the state government," he added.