Striking doctors want media coverage for meeting with Mamata for ‘transparency'

Kolkata, June 16: The doctors, striking in West Bengal said on Sunday they want the impasse to end at the earliest, but insisted that their meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should be 'transparent' and get media coverage.

Earlier, agitating junior doctors in Kolkata had turned down Chief Minister's appeal to end their stir and resume duty, saying there was no honest effort on her part to break the deadlock.

Later, the doctors said they are ready to meet Banerjee but the venue of the meeting would be decided later.

A short while back, the junior doctors of NRS Medical College and Hospital held a meeting after which they said, "We want immediate end to this impasse by discussion with the CM, which, to maintain transparency, shouldn't be behind closed doors, but open to media under camera coverage."

The deadlock at the state-run medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal entered the sixth day on Sunday. Doctors across the state called for a strike after two of their colleagues were brutally assaulted at the NRS Medical College and Hospital by the family members of a patient, who died on Monday night.

During a press conference at the state secretariat on Saturday, Banerjee urged the agitators to resume work and said her government had accepted all of their demands.
She also stressed that a group of doctors had met her and expressed their willingness to join duty, a claim vehemently refuted by the striking doctors.

During the meet, the chief minister emphasised that her government had not invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to get the doctors to resume work.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued an advisory, seeking a report on the ongoing stir and stating that it had received a number of representations from the medical fraternity from different parts of the country for their safety and security in view of the strike in West Bengal.