RG Kar protest: Junior doctors to meet CM Mamata on Monday but without withdrawing hunger strike

Junior doctors, protesting against the ghastly rape and murder of the junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, on Sunday evening made it clear their delegation will attend the scheduled meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday but not accept the state government's pre-condition of withdrawing their hunger strike.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of the junior doctors spearheading the movement on the rape and murder issue, sent an email to Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Sunday evening communicating their decision.

On Saturday evening, the Chief Secretary sent an email to the WBJDF setting withdrawal of the hunger strike as the precondition for the meeting. In the email, he also made it clear that the delegation of junior doctors coming for the meeting should not compromise more than 10 members and not more than 45 minutes will be allotted for the meeting.

The email from the Chief Secretary surprised the protesting junior doctors since this condition on "withdrawal of hunger strike" was not set during their phone conversation with the Chief Minister earlier on Saturday afternoon, which ensued when Pant, and other senior officials, suddenly reached the protest site earlier on Saturday.

Currently, a total of eight junior doctors, which include seven at Esplanade in Central Kolkata and one within the North Bengal Medical College & Hospital at Siliguri in Darjeeling district, are on hunger strike, which entered its 16th day on Sunday.

The decision to turn up for the meeting with the Chief Minister on Monday was taken at a meeting of the general body of the WBJDF that continued till Sunday evening.

According to Debasish Halder, one of the lead faces of the movement by the junior doctors, the front, in the most recent email to the Chief Secretary, have detailed their 10-point demands on the issue.

"We will be elaborating our demands in the matter again on Monday at the meeting with the Chief Minister. We are attending the meeting without setting any pre-conditions. But fast-unto-death agitation will continue and we are not ready to accept the precondition set by the state government in the matter," he said.

Halder's wife Snigdha Hazra, also a junior doctor, is one of the seven on the hunger strike at Esplanade.