Calcutta:
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, after meeting the protesting young doctors, announced that she has agreed to three of the five demands of the protesting doctors: the dismissal of two top officials of the health department and the Kolkata police chief. At the same time, the police chief of the city’s north zone, where RG Kar Medical College, the hospital where the rape-murder of a young doctor took place, is located, will also be dismissed. Although the impasse has been resolved, the protest and the ceasefire are expected to continue till the formal orders are issued in the morning.
“I think the meeting was positive. I'm sure they think so too,” she said. “Or why else would we sign the minutes of the meeting and they would sign them too?” she added.
Banerjee said they have accepted 99 percent of the doctors' demands, “because they are our younger brothers”.
“I know they are saying that they will hold talks and then decide on lifting the ceasefire. But I have requested them to do so, citing the condition of the patients, especially in view of the floods in some districts,” the Chief Minister said.
Doctors say protest will continue until…
The announcement is seen as a kind of capitulation. The atmosphere at the protest site after the doctors returned was celebratory. The junior doctors declared that the acceptance of their demands by the state was a “great victory” of their 38-day protest.
As for lifting the protest and casework, that can only happen if the government delivers, they said. “We have only received their verbal assurance,” said a representative of the Junior Doctors’ Forum.
But even then, their other goal – destroying the nexus of corruption in the hospital – remains, they said. “We will also continue the agitation for the resignation of the health minister,” added one of the other representatives.
What the state has promised
Mamata Banerjee has accepted the demands for improving hospital infrastructure and Rs 100 crore has been earmarked for it.
On the resignation of the two health officials, the director of medical education and the director of health services, Ms Banerjee said they would be transferred to appropriate posts.
“We are not doing them any disservice. They have not been in their posts for very long and have not done anything wrong. But since the students said they have no confidence in them, we have accepted it,” Ms Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister had earlier said that the city's police chief Vineet Goyal would be retained at least for the Durga puja. He had asked to resign several times but she wanted him to stay, she had said.
Mr Goyal’s deportation petition was filed following allegations of police role in tampering with evidence following the August 9 rape and murder, which have been responded to several times by the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court.
Last week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, arrested the hospital's former director, Sandip Ghosh, and a senior local police official.
The “fifth and final invitation for talks”
The Chief Minister's announcement came around midnight, after a two-hour meeting with the protesting doctors and another two-and-a-half hours to type up the minutes of the meeting. Ahead of the meeting, the state government had described it as a “fifth and final invitation for talks”.
The protesting junior doctors had come to the table after two failed attempts to hold talks with the Chief Minister. Escorted by a police vehicle, around 30 doctors arrived at Ms Banerjee’s house at 6.20 pm. The meeting, which was expected to begin at 5 pm, finally started around 7 pm and ended around 9 pm, after which the process of finalising the minutes began.
The doctors brought their own stenographers to take the minutes. The document was signed by 40 doctors.
The deadlock over the doctors’ demand for justice for the rape-murder of the 31-year-old medic has been going on for over a month. The Supreme Court has already ordered the doctors to end their strike and return to caring for patients who are suffering.
The order had ended the spread of the cease-work as doctors across India stood up to show solidarity with the protesters. But Bangladeshi doctors refused and redoubled the protests while common people continued to show their support.
The rape murder that shocked the country
The 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered in Kolkata hospital on August 9. Her partially naked body was found the next morning in the seminar hall of the hospital.
The main suspect, who has been arrested, is Sanjoy Roy, a volunteer with the Kolkata police. He was posted at the police station near the hospital and had access to all the departments.
But the investigation left too many questions unanswered, including the various distorted versions told to the parents, one of which was the claim that their daughter had committed suicide.
There were also allegations that the police had forced the cremation, despite the parents' unwillingness, with one officer even offering them money to bury the suitcase.
There was talk of construction work near the crime scene, a mob attack on protesters at RG Kar Hospital on the night of August 15 and the transfer of Sandip Ghosh to a top hospital hours after he submitted his resignation.
The courts questioned why the former director had not filed a complaint for a timely First Information Report, the deficiencies in the post-mortem report and related documents. The case was transferred to the CBI, which first arrested Ghosh in connection with the parallel corruption case they were investigating and then for alleged evidence tampering.
The events sparked massive protests across the country as people were already outraged by the shocking crime.
