The West Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant issued a fresh invitation of agitating doctors on Thursday, calling for a meeting at 5:00 pm. The delegation of doctors has been restricted to 15 people and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is slated to attend the proposed talks. Junior doctors in Kolkata began a sit-in protest outside the state health department office this week alongside a ‘cease-work’ agitation over the the rape and murder of a trainee medic.
The invitation was welcomed by the protesting doctors who hailed the government's ‘positive response’ to demands for Banerjee to attend the talks.
“We stick to our demand for live telecast of meeting with Bengal government. We have nothing to hide from people. Will go with 30-member delegation for meeting with Bengal govt instead of 15, attend talks with open mind,” the agitating junior doctors said following the invitation.
The protesters defied a Supreme Court order earlier this week to insist that their agitation would continue till demands were met. The agitators have also turned down earlier calls for discussion with the state government — insisting that the language of the invitation was ‘downright insensitive’.
Meanwhile the Mamata Banerjee-led government appears to have made some concessions after initially rejecting calls for the CM to attend the talks. The missive on Thursday however turned down their demand for a live broadcast as a preconditions for resolving the impasse. The government however said that it would allow a recording of the event for ‘transparency’.
“CM has requested, but they (protesting doctors) did not respond. On behalf of the government, a second letter has been issued by the Chief Secretary, but they did not respond... Our appeal is that please continue the protest but in a different way. Because lakhs of poor people who are dependent on government health machinery are being deprived,” said TMC leader Kunal Ghosh.
Healthcare services at state-run hospitals have remained crippled for more than a month amidst the ‘cease work’ agitation by the junior doctors.
"We will continue our agitation and ‘cease work’. But, we did not want to continue this. The state government is not open to holding any meeting with us. And, we want to make it clear that there is no politics behind our stir," one of the protesting doctors told PTI.
Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya had on Wednesday said the government remains open to discussions, but suggested that "political forces" might be influencing the protests. This had led to a quick rebuttal from the medics, who dismissed the claims as baseless.
(With inputs from agencies)
