Taking a surprise step to end the impasse between her government and protesting doctors, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday visited the site where the medics are staging a sit-in and addressed them. Later in the evening, the doctors went to her house for talks.
The doctors have been protesting since a trainee doctor was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last month and began a sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan, the headquarters of the West Bengal health department, on Tuesday. There have been moves for a discussion between the state government and the doctors since then but they have been getting stalled, most recently over the protestors' demand for live streaming of the talks.