The junior doctors in West Bengal protesting against the rape and murder of their colleague in Kolkata partially withdrew their strike on Saturday to resume duties in essential and emergency services at government-run hospitals, PTI reported.
Their work in out-patient departments, however, remained suspended.
The 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.
For more than a month, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front has been leading protests demanding the resignation of several senior officials and an end to the “threat culture” in West Bengal’s medical centres.
On Thursday, the doctors announced that they would resume essential and emergency services from Saturday. This came after several rounds of talks with the state government.
“We have started rejoining duties today [Saturday],” Aniket Mahato, one of the protesting doctors, told PTI. “Please do not forget that this is only a partial resumption of duties.”
On September 17, the state government accepted a key demand of the protestors, and announced the removal of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Abhishek Gupta, Director of Medical Education Debashish Halder and Director of Health Services Koustav Nayek from their posts.
However, later that day, the doctors said that certain key aspects from their five-point demands were still unresolved and sought another meeting with the state government.
At a second meeting on Wednesday, the junior doctors demanded the suspension of more officials, the resignation of the state health secretary and steps to improve security at hospitals.
The doctors on Thursday said that they had received a response from Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on their demands about the safety and security of health workers. “The correspondence mentioned the issuance of several guidelines… [which] outline several initiatives for our safety,” a statement from the doctors said.
It added that the state government had issued directives on “CCTV installation, designated rooms for doctors, water supply arrangements, and the presence of female police officers and special police patrols in colleges, along with panic alarm systems”.
However, the doctors said that they were yet to receive specific guidelines on the “termination of the threat culture in [medical] colleges and creating a democratic atmosphere” at the institutes.
The statement said that only a grievance cell was suggested, adding that this meant that “there has been no action regarding our demand about student elections in medical colleges”.
The doctors added: “Even though we are returning to work, we want to emphasise that the interim responsibility for safety lies with the state administration. If there is any failure in this regard, we will have to take strict measures again.”
The statement noted that while the doctors had achieved an “initial victory” as a majority of their demands had been met, their demand for justice had not been fully met yet and their movement would continue.
On Saturday, unidentified doctors told PTI that they would wait for seven days for the state government to fulfil their remaining demands, adding that another round of protests would begin if not done so.
Also read: Have the Kolkata rape-murder protests dented Mamata’s women support base?
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