(With agency inputs)

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NEW DELHI: The impasse in West Bengal showed signs of easing on Sunday as the agitating doctors agreed to a meeting with CM Mamata Banerjee , but with a condition that it should be open for media coverage.Talking to the media after a two-and-half-hour-long meeting of their governing body, a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors said, "We are keen to end this impasse. We are ready to hold talks with the chief minister at a venue of her choice, provided it is held in the open, in the presence of media persons, and not behind closed doors."Banerjee, during a press conference at the state secretariat on Saturday, had urged the agitators to resume work and said her government has accepted all their demands.The spokesperson said the venue should be spacious enough to accommodate representatives from all medical colleges and hospitals in the state."We want to join our duties as early as possible in the best interests of the common people once all our demands are met with adequately and logically through a discussion."We are hopeful that the chief minister will be considerate enough to solve the problems," he said, adding that the strike would continue till a solution was worked out.The doctors had earlier on Saturday evening turned down an invite for a closed-door meeting with Banerjee at the state secretariat and had instead asked her to visit the NRS Medical College and Hospital for an open discussion to resolve the impasse.The ministry of home affairs also issued an advisory seeking a report on the stir. But she reacted sharply to it and said such advisory should be "sent to states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where several murders are reported since the last couple of years".She also said her government has not invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) even after five days of the strike by the junior doctors."We have the laws, but we do not want to use them... We are not going to take any stringent action against any of the agitating junior doctors and hamper their career," she told a news conference after the agitators did not turn up for a meeting.The strike began on Monday night when two junior doctors of NRS hospital were injured in an attack by relatives of a patient, who died.Union health minister Harsh Vardhan also asked states to consider enacting specific legislation for protecting doctors and medical professionals from any form of violence in the wake Bengal assault on junior doctors.Patients in Delhi faced hardships for the second consecutive day as protest by doctors, in solidarity with their striking colleagues in Kolkata, spread to several government hospitals, which could not join a nationwide stir on June 14.The opposition BJP, CPM and Congress in Bengal lashed out at Banerjee "for not being serious in resolving the impasses over doctor's strike" and asked her to resolve the crisis.