Kolkata RG Kar Rape & Murder Case: A 30-member delegation of West Bengal Junior Doctors Forum (WBJDF) arrived at the state Secretariat Nabanna on Thursday for talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on their demands over the RG Kar rape and murder case. However, uncertainty continued regarding the meeting on the medics’ demand for live telecast.
Although the state government agreed to allow the 30-member delegation to attend the meeting instead of the 15-member cap it had earlier set, the junior doctors are unwilling to budge from their demand to live telecast the talks. The state government, on its part, has offered to record the meeting “to maintain transparency.”
In his email inviting the protesting doctors to talks on Thursday, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant made it apparent that the state administration will not accept the junior medics’ demand for a live telecast of the meeting but will record it for transparency.
“This will serve the purpose intended from your end while also ensuring all discussions are accurately documented,” Pant wrote in the email, calling on a delegation of no more than 15 to meet the Chief Minister.
However, the delegation members were adamant about the live streaming of the meeting.
“Before heading to the Secretariat, we made it clear that unless the two conditions — a 30-member delegation and live telecast of the meeting — are agreed to by the state government, we will not join the talks. We are sticking to our stand,” said the doctors.
“All administrative meetings of the Chief Minister are telecast live. Even there is a live telecast of the proceedings of the Supreme Court and different high courts. The entire country is curious to know what transpires in the meeting. So we have decided not to sit across the discussion table unless permission is given to live telecast the meeting,” said a junior doctors’ delegation member.
The protesting doctors had set a few criteria for the meeting, including sending a 30-member delegation, holding it in the presence of the Chief Minister, broadcasting it live for openness, and making the five-point demand they had been asking for since the beginning.
One of the five-point agenda’s key demands is the suspension of the state health secretary, director of health services, and director of medical education.
On Monday, the Supreme Court stated that doctors in West Bengal protesting the R.G. Kar rape-murder must resume their duty by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, or the state government will be permitted to take disciplinary action against them.
However, rattled by the Supreme Court’s ultimatum, the junior doctors vowed to continue their protest and planned a march to Swasthya Bhavan on Tuesday afternoon. Since then, the standoff over negotiations between demonstrators and the state administration has persisted.
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–IANS
(Photo: IANS/Kuntal Chakrabarty)
