Protesting NRS junior doctors firm on demanding media coverage of meeting with Mamata

The West Bengal government on Monday sent a letter to the protesting junior doctors and urged two representatives from each medical college of the state to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at 3 pm but dropped the demand of media coverage.

In the letter, Dr.P.K,.Mitra, Director Medical Education, Swasthya Bhawan, had stated the meeting would be recorded.

But declining a meeting without media coverage, the agitators said: "We wanted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to visit NRS and talk. She didn't do that. Since the issue is now having a national importance, we want media coverage of the meeting."

The protesters were earlier urged to arrive at state headquarters Nabanna by 2:30 pm.

"The discussion will focus on all your demands" Dr. P.K,.Mitra, Director Medical Education, Swasthya Bhawan, wrote in the letter.

Earlier on Sunday, after a long stand-off, the striking junior doctors put the ball in the Chief Minister's court, expressing their readiness to meet Banerjee at any venue she decides.

After the five-hour-long general body meeting this morning, the junior doctors said they want to meet the Chief Minister under camera supervision, thereby ruling out any closed-door meeting.

Why did the strike start?

The junior doctors went for an indefinite strike across West Bengal after relatives of Kolkata's Tangra resident 85-year-old Md. Sayeed, whose death at the NRS Hospital prompted cries of medical negligence from them, brought some 200 people to the hospital and beat up junior doctors, seriously wounding Paribaha Mukhopadhayay on Monday night.

The matter got more complex after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the SSKM Hospital a day ago and lost her cool over the protesters.

Banerjee, amid sloganeering by the agitators, alleged that the protesters are "outsiders". She even sent an ultimatum to the agitators to join work within four hours or else they would face action. However, Banerjee's ultimatum didn't change the situation much.

Doctors from Delhi, Mumbai and other cities have also joined the protest against the assault on Mukhopadhyay.

Going tough with the Banerjee-led West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the ruling dispensation to mediate with the junior doctors protesting against the attack on their mate Paribaha Mukhopadhyay.

CM urges protesters to sit across table

After her initial reaction which had drawn ire from the protesters, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged the junior students to sit across the table and resolve the crisis. Banerjee also said she has accepted all the demands of the agitators.