Striking doctors meet West Bengal Governor, seek intervention

A seven-member delegation of junior doctors led by the West Bengal unit of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Thursday met West Bengal Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi to apprise him of the prevailing unrest in various medical colleges in the state and requested his intervention in the matter.

The meeting took place in the wake of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's visit to Kolkata's SSKM Hospital where she gave the agitating doctors a four-hour ultimatum to withdraw their ongoing strike and warned of "strong action" if the situation was not normalised within the deadline.

"We had continued our work despite attacks on us earlier. But we will not tolerate such attacks anymore. Even yesterday, attacks on doctors were reported at Malda, Burdwan and Midnapore medical colleges. We expected the state's administrative head (CM) would stand by us but her statement was unfortunate and unsympathetic," a junior doctor said after meeting the Governor.

"We demanded proper security with deployment of armed forces at the hospital premises and arrest of culprits in the NRS case and other incidents with appropriate non-bailable sections of the IPC. We are ready to resume our work once our demands are met," he said.

Echoing their concerns, the ABVP leaders claimed that the situation in the hospitals has further worsened after Banerjee's visit as many junior doctors and medical students, both men and women, are being threatened by the state's ruling Trinamool Congress workers if the strike is not withdrawn.

"We took a delegation of seven junior doctors from various state-run medical colleges to the Governor as they are being threatened by the Trinamool-backed outsiders. A number of women medical students have got rape threats by hooligans since the Chief Minister's statements," Indranil Khan, state vice-president of ABVP, told IANS.

"Her statement was unsympathetic and provocative. We have appealed to the Governor to intervene and talk to the Chief Minister on this issue. The security of the doctors and medical students must be ensured," he said, adding that a kerosene bomb was thrown in Calcutta National Medical College premises to intimidate the striking doctors.

Protesting against the brutal attack on two junior doctors by the family members of a dead patient in Kolkata's state-run NRS Medical College and Hospital on Monday night, doctors across the state have stopped work at the out-patient departments (OPDs) in most government hospitals in the state since Wednesday.

--IANS

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