"Compelled To...": Bengal Doctors Resume Strike Over RG Kar Hospital Killing
Junior doctors in Bengal - protesting the rape and murder of a colleague on August 8 - resumed their 'indefinite' strike Tuesday, pressing, once again, for demands that include ensuring safety and security of medical professionals at all hospitals and clinics in the state.
"We are compelled to return to a full 'ceasework' starting today. Unless we receive clear action from the government on safety, patient services, and the politics of fear, we will have no choice but to continue our full strike," the striking doctors said in a statement issued this morning.
They also criticised the "slow"-paced CBI investigation into their colleague's murder, saying, "We have seen many times before that the CBI has been unable to reach any conclusions, allowing the real culprits of such incidents to go free due to delays in filing charges..."
"The Supreme Court, which had taken the initiative to expedite the trial of this heinous incident, has instead only postponed hearings and reduced the actual length of proceedings. We are disappointed and angered by this protracted judicial process," the doctors' body raged.
Ten days ago the junior doctors stood down from a month-long agitation, after squabbling with and finally meeting the state government and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and returned to provide essential and emergency services but not in outpatient departments.
They had then given the state a week to fulfil their demands.
Resumption of the strike follows an eight-hour meeting between the protesting doctors, who had earlier placed a list of 10 demands before Ms Banerjee's government. Apart from increased and improved security, the list included improving hospital infrastructure and firing key officials in her administration, including the Health Secretary, over claims of a 'threat culture'.
These measures, they have said, were "clearly communicated" in their meeting with the Chief Minister and government officials, but a lack of action had left them with no option. The state has since replaced Kolkata Police chief VK Goyal and two health department officials.
On Monday night, as the junior doctors' grumblings intensified, the Bengal government's Chief Secretary, Manoj Pant, told NDTV he had interacted with them and was "sure they will respond".
"... they will serve the society, for which they have done their training. They are doctors and we respect their profession... every citizen respects their profession... and we expect the same response from them," he said, explaining the Chief Minister had already held review meetings with the principals and the heads of medical colleges and universities, and "work has begun".
"Somewhere it is 30 per cent, somewhere 40... but work is going on in different stages. For any work to be done, some time is required. Even to install CCTV cameras some time is required and to build bathrooms, time is needed. But the point is we are working," he reassured the doctors.
"Everybody is working together... it is a collaborative effort and I am sure the results will be visible and we should not be impatient about it," he said.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court - which had taken suo moto cognisance of the killing - resumed hearing of the case Monday, with the focus on a disturbing new development. Photos of the murdered doctor - generated by AI tools - have begun circulating online, in direct violation of the top court's orders; an image and her name (which may not be published under Indian laws) were even uploaded to global online database Wikipedia, which the court ordered removed.
The junior doctor was found dead in a seminar room at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital early August 9. Her gruesome killing sparked furious protests nationwide, and was compared to the equally horrific Nirbhaya rape and murder in Delhi in December 2012.
The CBI, which took over the case after being ordered to by the Calcutta High Court, after it overruled a deadline for the police set by the Chief Minister, has arrested Dr Sandip Ghosh, who was the RG Kar Hospital chief at the time, before he resigned claiming "moral responsibility".
Ghosh has been arrested in connection with alleged financial irregularities in running the hospital, and has been subject to extensive interrogation and a lie-detector test, while properties belonging to him and associates have been searched. The CBI has also taken into custody a civilian volunteer with Kolkata Police - Sanjoy Roy - who is the prime accused.
The doctor's killing has sparked a massive political row with the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Chief Minister under severe pressure from the opposition and civil society activists.
