Kolkata Doctor's protest: High Court refuses to pass interim order

Reports said Calcutta High Court has refused to pass an interim order against the striking doctors.

The court has instead asked the state government to hold talks with the doctors and persuade them to return to work.

A formal complaint was lodged on Thursday with the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) seeking immediate intervention and to take exemplary disciplinary action against the striking doctors as held by the Supreme Court and Calcutta High Court.

A new PIL filed by People for Better Treatment (PBT) against the ongoing doctors’ strike will also be heard by the Chief Justice bench at Calcutta High Court today, according to PBT president Dr Kunal Saha.

The Left and Congress delegation will meet Keshari Nath Tripathi, Governor of West Bengal, at 4.30 pm today to draw his attention towards the doctors’ protest and strike. State Congress president Somen Mitra and others are protesting at Gandhi Murti in Kolkata.

Mamata’s nephew Abesh — son of the chief minister’s brother Kartick — was one of those who led a march by a team of junior doctors from KPC Medical College and Hospital in Jadavpur towards NRS Medical College and Hospital. Abesh is a student of KPC Medical College, from where Shabba has graduated.

When Mamata was asked by vernacular channels to react to these comments, she said: "Don’t ask me these personal questions. They are children. Children get emotional. They do things on the basis of those emotions. They can. Please don’t drag me down to the level of criticising children. Let them."

While 16 doctors belonging to RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, submitted their resignation in response to the prevailing situation today, two others from North Bengal Medical College & Hospital, Darjeeling resigned over violence against doctors in the state. The total number of resignations is being pegged around 85 since the protests broke out on Monday.

Doctors at AIIMS Bhubaneswar have been sitting in protest since today morning, extending solidarity with the growing violence against junior doctors at multiple hospitals in West Bengal. Members of Resident Doctors' Association were seen wearing helmets while some others bandaged their heads and hands, as a mark of protest, holding placards reading, "Save the Saviours”, “We are here to save ...Not to get killed”.

The OPD here is badly affected and patients are seen standing in long queues to get treated by other faculty members of the institution who have taken over the OPD. However, the emergency services are not affected. Over 2,000 patients visit AIIMS Bhubaneswar every day.

As doctors all over the country have come in support of the young doctor in Kolkata and are protesting against the brutal attacks against doctors, Dr Nilanjana Choudhury, Department of Microbiology at Silchar Medical College & Hospital, said that it is not a matter of religion or community which dictated the attack against the young doctor at NRS Hospital in Kolkata. While citing the abuse and attacks against doctors, she urges West Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee to ensure that the working conditions of doctors should be safe and secure.

Intensifying the protest, at least 80 doctors at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital submit mass resignation. They are demanding an unconditional apology of CM Mamata Banerjee for her statement yesterday.

A press statement by the Post Graduate Trainee Association there says they are "appalled at the insensitivity being demonstrated by the WB government on the plight of doctors. We also want to let the Central Govt. know that it is time to wakeup. We doctors are tired and fed up of being repeatedly beaten, bruised and brutalized at our place of work." 

Image: UNI