Junior doctors launch ‘fast unto death’ amid RG Kar Medical College crisis, medics plan protest rally
Despite the government of West Bengal pleading with them to go back to work, junior doctors began their ‘fast unto death’ for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday during the Durga Puja celebration to protest for justice for RG Kar rape-murder victim while about fifteen senior doctors supported them in a hunger strike.
More than 60 senior doctors joined the protest by continuing an ‘indefinite hunger strike’ at 9 a.m. today at Dorina Crossing in the Esplanade area of central Kolkata, although the young doctors started ‘fast unto death’ only on Saturday evening. The agitating junior doctors said they would come out on roads from College Square to Esplanade around 4:30 PM and hold a rally demanding their safety at the workplace, among other things.
Kolkata Medical College and Hospital’s Snigdha Hazra, Tanaya Panja, and Anustup Mukhopadhyay, SSKM’s Arnab Mukhopadhyay, NRS Medical College and Hospital’s Pulastha Acharya, and KPC Medical College’s Sayantani Ghosh Hazra have been performing the fasting ‘unto death’ since Saturday evening and were later joined by Aniket Mahato, a student of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, on Sunday.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, who appealed to junior doctors to go back to work on Monday, said that 90 percent of the ongoing projects in medical colleges in the state would be accomplished by next month. At the State Secretariat, he remarked, “I am requesting everyone to come back to work and give services to the people. Some of them already have. We are all working towards improving the environment. They (junior medics) will appreciate that very good progress has been made on the promises made by the government.”
He further added, “I will request them all to join duties. What they want is a safer environment, and we are working towards that. There is a positive intent from everybody’s side. There is no difference of opinion so far as the larger objective is concerned.”
The junior doctors had on October 4 ended their ‘total cease work’ that had virtually paralyzed healthcare services at state-run medical colleges and hospitals. The protesting doctors continue to demand that seeking justice for the deceased woman medic is still their main agenda.They also demanded the immediate sacking of Health Secretary NS Nigam, besides seeking action against anti-corruption administrative goof-ups in the department.
The other demands includes a central referral service for hospitals and medical colleges in the state; introduction of bed vacancy service; formation of task forces in the colleges for CCTV, on-call rooms, and better washrooms in the workplace.
They are also seeking more officers to be provided in hospitals, hiring more women police, and fast filling of the vacancies for doctors and nurses, among other healthcare givers. The junior doctors began their ‘cease work’ demonstration after the brutal rape and murder of a fellow medic at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
They stopped their stir after 42 days on September 21, stating that the state government agreed to consider their demands. But, in a bid to increase pressure on the government and demand improvements in health care services, they returned to their ‘total cease work’ on October 1st, after an attack on doctors was launched by the family of a patient at the state-run College of Medicine & Sagore Dutta Hospital the previous week. Although it was suspended on October 4th and began a new way of protesting by sit-in and “Fast unto death” from 5th October.
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