The standoff between agitating doctors and the West Bengal government continued on Thursday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she waited for two hours to meet the protesting doctors, but there was no response from them.
The development came after the state government issued a fresh invite to agitating doctors for talks at 5 pm to end the month-long stand-off in the wake of the rape and murder of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. In its letter, while the government accepted the doctors' demand for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's presence at the meeting, it rejected their prerequisite of a live telecast of the talks.
Mamata Banerjee said, “We had full system to record the meeting. For transparency and accurate documentation of the process, and we were even ready to share the recording with the Supreme Court's nod. With a case being subjudice, we cannot discuss fine prints of the case like this. That's why we had a facility to record the proceeding.”
She added, “We also have an open mind about live telecast but there are some legal bindings as the matter is subjudice.”
The doctors had initially expressed their willingness to meet the Chief Minister and said a team of 30 members would reach the Chief Minister's office. They, however, stood firm on their demand for a live telecast of the meeting.
Mamata Banerjee said that she was hoping for an open dialogue as it was in the interest of doctors and patients.
“We had asked for a delegation of 15 doctors, but they came with 34 and yet we decided to hold a meeting. But they refused to enter the meeting venue. We did not call other top health department officials just to facilitate the meeting,” Mamata Banerjee said.
She further claimed that 27 patients have died due to lack of medical services at government hospitals in the last one month.
The doctors have been protesting over the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at state-run RG Kar hospital while she was on night shift.
The fresh invite by the Bengal government came a day after it rejected the demands of protesting doctors for a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to end the standoff.
"The meeting shall not be live telecast. However, the same can be recorded to maintain transparency. This will serve the purpose intended from your end, while also maintaining the sanctity of the proceedings, ensuring that all discussions are accurately documented," the letter by the Chief Secretary read.
This is the third communication from the Bengal government to the doctors in the last two days, with the protesters rejecting the previous two proposals and setting concrete conditions for the meeting.
