Mamata asks agitating doctors to resume work within 4 hours

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday asked agitating junior doctors across the state to resume work within four hours and warned them of action if the order is not followed.

Banerjee, who reached the state-run SSKM hospital in the wake of the disruption of medical services in several parts of the state over the past three days, directed police to vacate hospital premises, asserting that no one other than the patients should be allowed on the campus.

The chief minister also alleged that the agitation was a part of the conspiracy of rival parties.

"The junior doctors' agitation is a conspiracy by the CPI(M) and the BJP," Banerjee, who also holds the health and family welfare portfolio, said. She contended that outsiders had entered medical colleges and hospitals to create disturbances.

The doctors, who have been agitating since Tuesday after one of their colleagues were attacked and seriously injured at the NRS hospital in Kolkata, raised "we want justice" slogans before Banerjee.

Emergency wards, outdoor facilities, pathological units of many government medical colleges and hospitals, and a number of private medical facilities in the state have remained closed over the past two days in the wake of the protest.