Mamata Banerjee accepts demands of protesting doctors

The West Bengal government on Saturday accepted all the demands of the agitating doctors and requested them to rejoin services as the stir entered its fifth day.

Calling the assault on a junior doctor at a Kolkata hospital an "unfortunate incident", chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that her government is committed towards resuming normal services in the state at the earliest. "We never arrested a single person. We will not take any police action. Health services cannot continue like this. I am not going to take any stringent action. Let good sense prevail," she said at a press conference today.

Doctors to continue agitation

The doctors, however, turned down Mamata's appeal and said they will continue their agitation in the state, adding that the chief minister did not take any honest initiative to address their concerns.

"We are eagerly waiting to rejoin our duty, but from the chief minister's side there is no honest initiative to find a solution (of the ongoing problem)," a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors told reporters.

The agitating junior doctors also rubbished Banerjee's claims that a few of their colleagues visited her at the state secretariat. "What CM has told in the press conference is not at all true. No junior doctor went to meet her. What she claimed that we are against the solution and conversation ... But we want her to come to the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital listen to us and take necessary steps to serve the ailing people," he said.

Centre seeks report on violence

The ministry of home affairs has sought a report from the West Bengal government on the strike by the doctors. In an advisory, the MHA said it has received a number of representations from doctors, healthcare professionals and medical associations from different parts of the country for their safety and security in view of the ongoing strike by doctors in West Bengal.

Doctors refuse meeting with Mamata

Earlier today, agitating doctors turned down the invite for a closed-door meeting with chief minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat, raising apprehension about their security, and instead asked her to visit the NRS Medical College and Hospital for an open discussion to resolve the impasse. They said no representative of the agitating doctors would be attending the meeting called by Banerjee at the state secretariat on Saturday evening.

Union minister Harsh Vardhan writes to states over security of doctors

In view of the assault on doctors in West Bengal, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan wrote to the chief ministers of all states and Union Territories (UTs), urging them to take strict action against any person who assaults medical practitioners. Expressing deep concern over the recent act of violence against doctors, the Union health minister stated that incidents of assaults on doctors are reported from different parts of the country, leading to a sudden strike by doctors, gravely affecting healthcare services.

Bengal governor writes to Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi wrote to chief minister Mamata Banerjee advising her to take immediate steps to provide security to medicos and find out a solution to the impasse rising out of junior doctors' agitation across the state. Tripathi advised her to take the doctors into confidence about the arrangements of their security as well as the progress of investigation into the incidents of assault on them. Banerjee later said that she has spoken to the governor and apprised him about the steps taken by the state government to resolve the impasse in hospitals.

Opposition asks Mamata to apologise

Opposition parties of West Bengal attacked CM Mamata Banerjee for "not being serious" about resolving the situation arising from the protests by junior doctors and asked her to apologise to them. The BJP, the Congress and the CPM blamed Banerjee for the ongoing crisis in the state's health sector and accused her of being more interested in scoring political brownie points rather than diffusing the tension.

AIIMS doctors calls off strike, issue 48-hour ultimatum to Bengal government

Protest by doctors in Delhi, in solidarity with their striking colleagues in Kolkata, spread to several government hospitals, who could not join a nationwide stir on June 14. Resident doctors at AIIMS, who resumed work after having boycotted it on Friday, had given a 48-hour ultimatum to Mamata Banerjee to meet the demands of the state's agitating doctors, failing which they said they would go on an indefinite strike.

They attended patients wearing helmets and bandages on forehead as a sign of protest. AIIMS resident doctors will also take out a candle march in the campus in the evening.

WBCPCR urges doctors to end strike, claims children dying due to lack of treatment

The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) had also urged the agitating doctors of the state to call off their strike because children were dying for lack of timely critical medical services. Condemning the attack on doctors, the organisation said that many patients do not possess enough money to avail treatment at private nursing homes and hospitals.

(With agency inputs)



In Video: Have accepted all demands of protesting doctors, they must rejoin service, says Mamata Banerjee