Kolkata: Amid Durga Puja festivities, the agitation demanding justice for the raped and murdered RG Kar Hospital trainee doctor intensified.
As seven doctors from various state medical colleges continued their indefinite hunger strike until all demands of West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Forum are met, more senior doctors tendered mass resignation on Wednesday.
A day after around 50 doctors and faculty members of RG Kar Hospital signed a letter in which they resigned en masse in support of the junior medics observing fast for the fourth day, over 100 senior doctors from Calcutta Medical College, National Medical College & Hospital and North Bengal Medical College & Hospital in Siliguri followed suit on Wednesday.
The mass resignations don’t mean that these doctors will immediately cease work, but rather an intimation that they will do so and put in their papers individually, if the situation demands.
“We the senior faculty members of Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata are rendering mass resignation to protest the insensitive attitude towards justified democratic movement and deteriorating health conditions of the protesting doctors on indefinite hunger strike. Individual resignation will follow if the situation demands so,” stated the resignation letter signed by the senior doctors of Medical College and Hospital.
Police Stop Junior Medics From Travelling To Puja Pandals In Vans
Junior doctors also sought to take their protest forward by visiting famous Puja pandals in south and north Kolkata to spread awareness about their demands seeking justice for ‘Abhaya’, the deceased RG Kar doctor, and ‘Uma’, a schoolgirl who was brutally murdered last week at Kultali in South 24 Parganas.
However, their matador vans were stopped by police near Chandni Chowk and not allowed to move despite repeated pleas.
“We will visit 12 puja pandals in vehicles. We will reach out to the citizens who are visiting there and tell them about our movement and demands. We will distribute leaflets and speak to the people. Our demands are not just related to gearing up security in hospitals, but they also include strengthening infrastructure in government hospitals, which will benefit the citizens,” a junior doctor detailed the plan.
Once their vehicles were stopped, the junior doctors set out on foot.
Meanwhile, some doctors’ forums marched to the CBI office in Salt Lake to mount pressure on the central agency which is probing the RG Kar rape and murder case.
These doctors are unhappy with the chargesheet filed by CBI naming just Sanjoy Roy as the accused in the gruesome crime two months ago.
“There were many others involved in the crime, how has the CBI named just one person? Is the CBI also trying to save some people?” they asked.
