Kolkata: After the deadlock between striking doctors and West Bengal government continued on Thursday, Mamata Banerjee said she was ready to quit as West Bengal chief minister even as she said that the protests against the RG Kar rape and murder case were aimed at toppling her government.
The doctors, who have been on ceasework for 34 days and even defied Supreme Court’s directive to resume duty by 5 pm on September 10, did finally travel to the state secretariat to meet the CM, ultimately didn’t go in to the venue as their demand of live streaming of proceedings wasn’t met.
“I know most of the doctors were interested in the meeting. But we have come to know there were a handful who wanted to create a stalemate… they were receiving instructions from outside telling them not to negotiate,” Mamata stated, hinting that the protests were politically motivated.
“I am even ready to quit for the sake of justice for common people… I don’t want the chair. But they don’t want justice. They just want the chair,” she said, as the standoff between agitating doctors and state government continued.
Mamata claimed she waited for two hours at the state secretariat on Thursday to meet the protesting doctors, but they refused to meet her.
Stating that live telecast of the meeting was not possible because of some legal bindings as the matter is sub-judice.
“We had full system to record the meeting for transparency and accurate documentation of the process. We were even ready to share the recording with the Supreme Court’s nod,” she explained.
Urging the striking doctors to resume work, the CM alleged that 27 patients have died and 7 lakh patients haven’t got treatment at government hospitals due to doctors’ strike over last one month.
“An accident patient recently died at RG Kar hospital without treatment… What about his mother and family? Shouldn’t we light a candle for him?” Mamata asked.
