RG Kar tragedy: Bengal government convenes meeting with junior doctors tonight

Kolkata: As the protests over the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital take a serious shape with over 250 senior doctors of government hospitals tendering their mass resignation during the last two days, the state government has convened a meeting with the representatives of West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum (WBJDF) an emergency meeting on Wednesday night.

The meeting was slated for 7.45 p.m. and as per a communique from the state government to the WBJDF, a delegation of eight to 10 junior doctors have been invited to participate in the meeting.

The WBJDF has agreed to attend the meeting. The meeting will be held at Swasthya Bhavan, the state Health Department headquarters at Salt Lake in the presence of Chief Secretary Manoj Pant.

However, it is yet to be known whether Health Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam, whose replacement is one of the major demands of the protesting junior doctors, will be present at the meeting or not.

"The state government has started feeling the pressure of the mass movement in support of us. The common people are joining us in the movement. We have decided to attend the meeting. Please do not think that we have decided to attend the meeting under any pressure. We will be attending the meeting to get our demands fulfilled," WBJDF representative Dabasish Halder said.

"We are sticking to our demands. We will not be withdrawing from our fast-unto-death protests as long as nine of our ten-point demands, which are within the jurisdiction of the state government, are fulfilled. We are becoming physically weaker but not mentally. So I request the common people to stand beside us as firmly as they had done so far," said Arnab Mukhopadhyay, one of the seven junior doctors who are on hunger strike, which entered its fifth day on Wednesday.