The protesting junior doctors in West Bengal, who have announced the end of their sit-in at Swasthya Bhavan, plan to march to the CBI office in Salt Lake on Friday to demand justice for the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at the state-run RG Kar hospital last month.
After 41 days of deadlock, the junior doctors announced on Thursday that they would partially resume duties, including attending to essential services at state-run hospitals, starting Saturday.
To mark the end of their 10-day dharna near the state health department headquarters, they will hold a procession from the protest site to the CGO Complex, about 4 km away, calling for a swift conclusion to the investigation.
The doctors also announced the launch of Abhaya medical camps, named in memory of the brutally murdered RG Kar post-graduate trainee doctor, in flood-affected areas of the state starting Friday.
“Given the flood situation in West Bengal and the state government agreeing to certain demands of ours, we will be rejoining emergency and essential services partially from Saturday,” an agitating doctor said on Thursday after their general body meeting.
The protesting doctors said they would not work in the Outpatient Department (OPD) but would partially work in emergency and essential services.
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“We will wait for a week for the West Bengal government to implement all its promises and if unfulfilled, we will resume ‘cease work’,” the doctors said.
The announcements followed Chief Secretary Manoj Pant’s directives, which were issued after discussions between the agitating junior doctors and the state task force during Wednesday’s meeting. Pant emphasized that the measures to ensure safety, security, and a conducive environment for healthcare professionals must be implemented immediately.
Earlier, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had replaced Kolkata Police Chief Vineet Goyal with Manoj Kumar Verma and removed the directors of medical education and health services.
In a related development, the West Bengal Medical Council revoked the registration of RG Kar Medical College’s former principal, Sandip Ghosh. Ghosh, an orthopedic surgeon currently in CBI custody, has been removed from the list of registered medical practitioners maintained by the WBMC.
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