Mamata Banerjee invites striking doctors for talks today after Calcutta HC push

New Delhi, June 15: Hours after the Calcutta High Court refused to pass any interim order on the strike by junior doctors at state-run hospitals and asked the West Bengal government to persuade them to resume work and restore healthcare services, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee invited protesting students but they didn't turn up. Following talks, a meeting with them is now being called at 5 pm on Saturday.

The striking doctors have 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.

Listing their six conditions, the protesters said Banerjee will have to visit injured doctors at the hospital and her office should release a statement condemning the attack on them.

"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.

Earlier on Friday, Banerjee, while visiting the SSKM Hospital, 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.

Two junior doctors were assaulted on Monday night by family members of a patient who died at the NRS Hospital.

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.