Even though the Supreme Court gave them until Tuesday, September 10, at 5 p.m., to resume their jobs, junior physicians in West Bengal have said that they would not stop their “cease work” in order to demand justice for the trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital who was raped and murdered.
The Bengal division of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) expressed its dismay at the Supreme Court’s decision to order the protesting physicians on Monday.
In the meantime, protests were held around Kolkata as part of the “9-9-9” event, in which participants gathered for nine minutes on Monday night at nine o’clock in the evening to call for justice for the RG Kar hospital doctor.
Aside from Bally and Mandirtala in the nearby town of Howrah, hundreds of people congregated for nine minutes at the Shyambazar, Esplanade, New Town, Jadavpur 8B terminus, singing the national anthem.
In order to prevent retaliation from the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court ordered the striking medics to return to work by Tuesday at 5 p.m. The West Bengal administration promised the court that if the protesting doctors returned to work, no action would be taken against them, including punitive transfers. Based on this assurance, the court granted the directive.
The striking physicians announced that on Tuesday at noon, they will stage a demonstration outside “Swasthya Bhavan,” the state’s health department’s headquarters in Salt Lake, calling for the resignation of the director of health education and the state’s health secretary.
“Our demands are unfulfilled and justice is not meted out to the victim. We will continue our agitation as well as the ‘cease work’. We want the health secretary and DHE to resign. Tomorrow noon, we will hold a rally to the Swasthya Bhavan,” news agency quoted one of the protesting doctors as saying after their governing body meeting in Kolkata.
The West Bengal government and the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into the matter, were slammed in a statement by the IMA Bengal state section for allegedly not doing enough to protect the trainee doctor’s rights and take action against the health syndicate.
The IMA also said protests “won’t die down” and that it would “become more stronger” till a solution was reached.
“We are totally disheartened by the proceedings of the court and CBI. No step was taken for a speedy trial to deliver justice to our colleague. We were even more disheartened to learn that Hon’ble Supreme Court has asked the junior doctors, who are the forerunners of this protest to return to work by 5pm tomorrow,” the IMA said in the statement.
The ruling Trinamool Congress praised the Supreme Court’s order for West Bengal’s striking physicians to return to work, arguing that doctors’ primary responsibility is to save lives and that this commitment cannot be broken.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, has come under fire from the mother of the deceased trainee doctor for allegedly lying when she said that no money would be given. She denied the CM’s assertion on Monday, saying Mamata Banerjee did make a financial offer after her daughter’s untimely death. “The Chief Minister is lying. My daughter will not return. Would I lie in her name? The chief minister told us that we would receive money and suggested that we create something in our daughter’s memory. I responded that I would come to her office to collect the money once my daughter gets justice,” news agency quoted the victim’s mother as saying.
The CBI stated during a hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday that it has chosen to send samples to AIIMS for additional research and expressed doubts over the postgraduate medic’s forensic report, according to news agency.
In an appearance before a bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta of the CBI stated that the medical report indicated the death was homicidal and that there was evidence of forced penetration and sexual assault.
