Junior doctors continue protest demanding justice in RG Kar rape-murder case

KOLKATA: Junior doctors in Kolkata continue their protest for the fourth consecutive night amid heavy rain at Swasthya Bhawan in the Salt Lake area, demanding justice in the RG Kar medical college rape and murder case of a trainee doctor.

In an effort to monitor the situation and ensure security, the Kolkata Police have installed CCTV cameras at the protest site and surrounding areas. The move comes as the junior doctors maintain their stand, demanding justice and calling for enhanced safety measures at medical institutions, even after the Supreme Court set a deadline for doctors to resume work on Tuesday.

Earlier on September 13, junior doctors in Kolkata criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for rejecting their request to live telecast a meeting and for not meeting with them. They argued that their request was reasonable, given that parliamentary discussions and many administrative meetings are broadcast live.

The doctors expressed frustration over being asked to leave electronic gadgets outside the meeting hall, which prevented them from recording the proceedings.

Speaking to the media, Anustup Mukherjee, one of the doctors, said that they tried to negotiate for live telecasting the meeting with the state government, but that issue remained non-negotiable.

"If all parliamentary discussions can be live telecast, if even the Chief Minister herself encourages live telecast of all her administrative meetings, then perhaps our request was not unjustified. Also, as we are headed towards the discussion regarding our demands of justice and not any subjudice matter, we did not find any breach of code of law in our request for live telecast. We are also asked to leave all our electronic gadgets outside of meeting hall, which negates any chance of video recording from our side. But unfortunately, this issue remained non negotiable," Mukherjee told reporters.

Earlier, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee urged the protesting doctors to return to work, adding that she has no greed for her CM post, but is more concerned about justice for the RG Kar rape-murder victim and treatment for ordinary citizens.

Addressing a press conference, Mamata Banerjee said, "I am ready to resign from the Chief Minister of West Bengal. I am not concerned about the post. I want justice for the victim, I am only concerned about ordinary people getting medical service." The second-year postgraduate medical student was raped and murdered inside the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College on August 9.