Kolkata: Uncertainty has surfaced over the proposed crucial meeting between the protesting junior doctors and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday evening as the state government has set fresh conditions for conducting the meeting.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Saturday evening sent a fresh email to the West Bengal Junior Doctors; Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of the junior doctors spearheading the movement on the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in August this year, seeking “withdrawal of the fast-unto-death agitation by a group of junior doctors”, as the precondition for the meeting.
In the email, he also made it clear that the delegation of junior doctors coming to the meeting would not be more than 10 and not more than 45 minutes would be entertained for the meeting.
“All the points raised by you were discussed and responded to. However, as requested by you, in case you wish to further discuss these points, you are invited for a meeting with the Hon’ble Chief Minister on Monday 21st October 2024 at 5.00 PM in Nabanna Sabhaghar with 10 of our colleagues, after withdrawing the hunger strike. In view of other prior occupations of Hon’ble Chief Minister, this meeting is slated for 45 minutes only,” the Chief Secretary’s email read.
The fresh email from the Chief Secretary has come as a surprise for the protesting junior doctors since this condition on “withdrawal of hunger strike” was not set during their telephonic interaction with the Chief Minister earlier in the day where 5 p.m. on Monday was fixed for the crucial meeting.
At the time the report was filed, the protesting junior doctors were yet to communicate to the media persons about their reaction to it and their future course of action.
The date and time of the meeting were fixed at a telephonic interaction between the representatives of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body spearheading the movement and the Chief Minister, after she issued an appeal to the junior doctors to withdraw their fast-unto-death demonstration and come for discussions.
Chief Secretary Pant, accompanied by Home Secretary Nandini Chakraborty and Kolkata Police’s Deputy Commissioner, Central division, Indira Mukherjee suddenly turned up at the dais of the hunger strike by seven junior doctors at Esplanade in central Kolkata. There, he contacted the Chief Minister on his mobile phone and she made her appeal to the protesting junior doctors over its speaker.
“I request you to withdraw the hunger strike. Please come to the discussions. Most of your demands have already been fulfilled. Please give me three to four months. I will arrange to conduct elections for different councils in all medical colleges & hospitals. Please withdraw the hunger strike,” Banerjee said.
Debasish Halder, one of the leading faces of the junior doctors’ movement and who interacted with the Chief Minister over the telephone, requested her to give a written assurance about the state government accepting their demands.
Rumelika Kumar, one of the seven junior doctors on hunger strike, said that it seemed that the state government was not taking the hunger strike seriously. “The manner in which we were asked to return to duty was quite painful for us,” she said.
Incidentally, on Friday evening, the WBJDF cautioned the state government that they will be forced to return to a total cease-work agitation from Tuesday unless their demands are not fulfilled by Monday.
