West Bengal: Junior doctors request another meeting with govt to resolve unmet demands

KOLKATA: West Bengal Junior Doctors Front, which is protesting against the rape and murder of a doctor at a Kolkata hospital, has sent an email to the state Chief Secretary requesting one more meeting as some demands remained unresolved.

Following the meeting with the protesting doctors on Tuesday, the West Bengal government accepted some of their demands including the removal of the police chief of Kolkata and two senior health officials.

"There have been repeated attempts to politicize our cause, false accusations of seeking positions of power rather than justice, and efforts to create divisions among us through emails, audio clips, and to malign our movement. Yesterday, in a long discussion with the Honorable Chief Minister, our five-point demands were discussed, and some of them were partially fulfilled," Junior Doctors Front said in a press release issued on Tuesday.

The Junior Doctors Front also slammed some of the provisions in the "Aparajita Act" which proposes stopping of night shifts for doctors. "The deep-rooted misogyny and medieval mindset hidden behind the state's "Aparajita Act" have been laid bare before the Supreme Court.

It was made clear that imposing restrictions like not allowing night duties and limiting day shifts to less than twelve hours creates a divide between men and women, and such interference with their freedom cannot provide genuine security for women," Junior Doctors Front said.

Follwing the meeting with the doctors, Dr Kaustav Nayak and Dr Debashis Halder have been removed from the posts of Director of Medical Education (DME) and Director of Health Services (DHS) from the Department of Health and Family Welfare of the West Bengal Government on Tuesday.

Along with these changes, the Director of the Institute of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Suparna Dutta, and Joint DHS, Dr Swapan Soren, have also been removed from the posts.

According to the notification by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Nayak will assume the post of the Director of the Institute of Health and Family Welfare and Haldar as Officer on Special Duty for Public Health in Swasthya Bhawan.

The body of the 31-year-old doctor was found at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Since then thousands of junior doctors in the state have been on a strike.