Bengal Doctors End Cease-Work, To Resume Essential Services From Saturday

The junior doctors of Bengal called off their massive protest over the rape-murder of a colleague at a Kolkata hospital and said they will join work from Saturday. But there was a caveat - they said they will not join OPD services or attend elected operations. These would be resumed once they are assured of the state government's commitment to the safety issue, they said. The announcement came after the state had accepted most of their demands -- and amid massive floods in south Bengal where health services have become a priority. 

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been on a tour of the flood-hit areas since yesterday. It was the Chief Secretary who attended the last meeting with the doctors on Wednesday and accepted their demands and suggestions regarding security. 

Earlier today, he wrote to the Principal Secretary, giving detailed instructions which included ensuring adequate availability of on-duty rooms, washrooms, CCTVs, deployment of police and security personnel which would include women, mobile police teams for surveillance at night, central helpline and panic buttons and alarms.  

The official has also ordered an audit of  security at all state-run medical institutions.

The doctors made it clear that this partial return to work is not by any means an end to their agitation. "If needed, we will begin ceasework again," said a representative of the junior doctors. The legal battle will also continue, as would their demand for a quick resolution of the rape-murder of a 31-year-old doctor that is at the heart of the protest. 

The end of this phase of protest will be marked by a march from the protest site to the CGO Complex, where the office of the Central Bureau of Investigation is located. 

The resolution of the 41-day impasse with the state government was set in motion on Monday, with the doctors sitting face-to-face with the Chief Minister after three failed attempts. 

Ms Banerjee had immediately announced the removal of Kolkata police chief Vineet Goyal and two top officials of the health department. The doctors, though, are still pushing for the removal of the health secretary. 

"I know they say they will go and discuss and then will decide on lifting the ceasework. But I have requested them to do so, citing the condition of patients, especially in view of the floods in some of the districts," the Chief Minister had said after the meeting.

The doctors had declared that meeting a "partial success" and said the government was capitulating in face of the protests that was buttressed by thousands of the residents of the city.

The 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College on August 9. The prime suspect is Sanjoy Roy, a civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, who was stationed at the police outpost at the hospital and had access to all departments.

The protests that started at the hospital the next day soon snowballed, drawing in  the civil society and leading to a massive logjam with the state government that could not be resolved even by a "back to work' order by the Supreme Court. Mamata Banerjee said though the court order has empowered her to use strong-arm tactics, she would not do so, since she did not support "Emergency'.

The logjam was caused by the police investigation that left too many unanswered questions, allegations that the police had forced the cremation despite the parents' unwillingness and an officer's offer of money to the woman's parents to bury the case. The officer concerned has been removed as well. 

It was followed by the state's transfer order for Principal Sandip Ghosh, hours after he resigned from the post under pressure of public opinion. 

The sequence of events led to spiralling protests that spread across the country, already outraged over the shocking crime.