Junior doctors have been protesting for the last four days in Kolkata.
Highlights
- Doctors in Kolkata have been on strike for the last four days
- The protest has crippled health services across West Bengal
- Mamata Banerjee has called the strike a conspiracy by the BJP and the CPM
Doctors in Kolkata, who have been on strike for the last four days over the assault of their colleague, on Friday set six conditions to withdraw their protest that has crippled health services across West Bengal and also demanded Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's unconditional apology.
"We want unconditional apology of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the manner in which she had addressed us at the SSKM Hospital yesterday. She should not have said what she had," a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors, Dr Arindam Dutta, said.
Ms Banerjee, while visiting the SSKM Hospital yesterday, had claimed "outsiders" entered medical colleges to create disturbance and called the strike by the junior doctors a conspiracy by the BJP and the CPM. "The BJP, with help from the CPI(M), is indulging in Hindu-Muslim politics. I am shocked to see their love affair," she had said.
Listing their six conditions, the protesters said Ms Banerjee will have to visit injured doctors at the hospital and her office should release a statement condemning the attack on them.
"We also want immediate intervention of the chief minister. Documentary evidence of judicial inquiry against the inactivity of the police to provide protection to the doctors at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital on Monday night should also be provided," Dr Dutta said.
Two junior doctors were assaulted on Monday night by family members of a patient who died at the NRS Hospital.
"We demand documentary evidence and details of action taken against those who had attacked us," Dr Dutta said.
The agitating doctors also demanded unconditional withdrawal of all "false cases and charges" which were imposed on junior doctors and medical students across West Bengal in the wake of their strike.
They also stressed on their demand for improvement of infrastructure in all health facilities as well as posting of armed police personnel there.
The junior doctors' strike in West Bengal, on since Tuesday, has hit services in the state's government-run hospitals. Over the last four days, services have been affected in emergency wards, outdoor facilities and pathological units of many state-run hospitals.