RG Kar: Bengal junior doctors resume work partially, vow to go on ceasework again if demands not met

The doctors resumed their work only for emergency services days after the state government agreed to some of their demands and promised to fulfill the rest.

However, the doctors, who called off the ceasework with a massive rally from state health office Swasthya Bhavan to Central Bureau of Investigation's office in Salt Lake on Friday, threatened to go on strike again if the rest of their demands are not fulfilled by the government.

"We have resumed work partially but we will go on ceasework again if the government fails to fulfill our demands. We are keeping an eye on the next court hearing (scheduled to be held on September 27)," one of the protesters told a local TV channel.

The junior doctors, who almost compelled Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to remove Kolkata Police chief Vineet Goyal, DC North Abhishek Gupta and two health officials, held a closing march from Swasthya Bhavan to CBI's office CGO Complex on Friday.

The doctors in their Friday rally raised slogans against the CBI demanding justice weeks after their relentless attack on the state government, whose role in the RG Kar case has come under the scanner over an alleged cover-up.

The junior doctors, who were camped outside state health office Swasthya Bhavan for 11 days, called off the ceasework partially on Thursday after state chief secretary Manoj Pant promised the implementation of safety measures and efforts to dispel the threat culture, which is aimed at several ruling party members, over time.

"We will still not join the OPD and OT services as we still don't feel safe. The Chief Secretary has accepted many of our suggestions regarding safety issues and crackdown of the threat culture but unless implemented, we won't join work fully," Dr. Debashis Halder, another junior doctor, had said on September 19.

The doctors vowed to continue their protests and warned that if the threat culture continues, they would return to ceasework. "We consider this a partial victory of our protest," the doctors said.

"The government should not take our decision lightly as we will continue protests on the streets, outside the CGO Complex, or at the Supreme Court. We want speedy justice for Abhaya and we want to clearly state that if our safety demands are not met, we will return to ceasework," Dr. Halder said.

The decision to end the ceasework partially was taken at their general body meeting a day after a second round of talks was held between the junior doctors and Chief Secretary Manoj Pant at state secretariat Nabanna on Wednesday following the one with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Although there was discord regarding the minutes of the meeting on Wednesday as the junior doctors were miffed with Pant for not signing any official document, they said that an email sent from the Chief Secretary Thursday promised that directives regarding safety will be implemented soon.

"We still want Principal Health Secretary Narayan Nigam to be removed from his position and will continue our legal battles in the Supreme Court," the doctors said Thursday.

The meeting between protesting junior doctors and Mamata Banerjee at the latter's Kalighat residence on Monday saw the removal of Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, DC North Abhishek Gupta and two health officials.

Though Kolkata Police had arrested civic volunteer Sanjoy Roy in connection with the incident, West Bengal junior doctors suspect there are more than one behind the incident.

The case is currently being probed by the CBI under the monitoring of the Supreme Court.

The CBI has arrested former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh, who was already in the probe agency's custody in connection with financial irregularities in the hospital, in the rape-murder case.