3 days Ago
Kolkata: Bengal govt has decided to remove Kolkata's police commissioner, Vineet Goyal, and a deputy commissioner of police, apart from two top state health department officials from their posts and expects junior doctors of state-run hospitals — on cease-work since Aug 9 — to return to work "for people's sake". Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee disclosed this to the media after a two-hour-and-10-minute meeting with 42 junior doctors' representatives at her Kalighat residence on Monday evening. Junior doctors left the CM's residence around midnight, with "the signing of the minutes of the meeting" taking longer than the meeting proper, saying the government had acceded "to some of their demands".
"I saluted them for their agitation and am happy with the outcome of the meeting," Banerjee told the media after the doctors left for their Swasthya Bhavan protest site. "They raised several issues and we gave our views but tried to listen to their demands as much as possible," she added, explaining: "They are much younger. So we tried to accord as much importance to their demands as possible after starting the meeting following a condolence message for Abhaya (her family).
" "Their first demand was justice for the crime," the chief minister went on, adding that this issue was now with CBI, as it was probing the RG Kar crime. "They had four other demands, the first of these being the removal of the director of medical education, director of health services and the health secretary. I told them that the administration would not function if all of them were removed at the same time.
So we have decided to remove DME Kaustuv Nayek and DHS Debashis Haldar," Banerjee said. "Both had just joined these assignments. But the students were very angry and did not have faith in them (the officials).
So they will be moved from their posts with full honours," she added. Banerjee then referred to the junior doctors' demands regarding the police force, adding that CP Goyal would be handing over charge to his successor after 4pm on Tuesday. "Vineet has agreed to move to a post he wants.
I have told the doctors that the police work for the government and so we have to look after them as well," she said, adding that deputy commissioner of police (north) Abhishek Gupta, too, would be transferred. The doctors' last demand — "their safety and security development of hospitals and medical colleges" — would be given "full importance", Banerjee said. "The meeting ended on a positive note.
So they signed the minutes," she said, referring to the doctors. "Our appeal to them is go and and discuss these issues with your friends but do return to work for people's sake," Banerjee added. Monday's meeting followed a few hours after Nabanna's "fifth and final" invite to the junior doctors and came just a day before the Supreme Court would be convening for the fourth time to hear various litigations on the RG Kar rape and murder and connected issues.
The doctors went to the CM's residence with five basic demands: disciplinary action against former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and deputy commissioners of police Gupta and Indira Mukherjee; removal of DME Nayek, DHS Haldar, state health secretary N S Nigam and Kolkata Police commissioner Goyal; improved security and amenities for doctors at state-run hospital, an end to the "threat culture" against doctors and justice for the RG Kar junior doctor who was raped and murdered at her workplace on August 9. CM Banerjee, speaking to a Bengali news channel earlier on Monday, set the ball rolling for Monday's meeting when she said that she, too, demanded "justice for Tilottama" and that was why she was keen on a dialogue with the junior doctors. "I am equally concerned about the issue and care for doctors' security.
I am ready to listen to them. They should come over at the stipulated time. The dialogue process is not possible if it is one-sided; it has to be two-sided," she said.
Bengal was going through a bad time because of the flood-like situation in several districts, she said, urging the doctors to resume work. "Rejoin duty thinking about the people who are waiting for treatment. Let us sit and solve this issue together," Banerjee said.
Junior doctors reached her Kalighat residence around 6.25 p.m.
after a four-hour general body meeting, which followed meetings at individual medical colleges. There was no demand for any live-streaming but two stenographers accompanied the 42 junior doctors. The email from Nabanna, which went from state chief secretary Manoj Pant's office, mentioned that this was the last invite from the state government and made it clear that there would be no live-streaming or videography of the meeting as the matter was being heard by the SC; but minutes of the meeting could be recorded and signed by both parties, it added.
The doctors' GB meeting agreed that "minutes with full transcript" would suffice. The meeting at the CM's Kalighat home finally started at 6.40 p.
m. and ended around 8.50 p.
m. Monday's meeting was the state government's fifth stab at a dialogue and came after two episodes — one last ..
. and the other on Saturday — when doctors had reached Banerjee's doorstep, once at Nabanna and the second time at her Kalighat home. One meeting got scuppered because of the doctors' demand to have the meeting "live-streamed", which the government did not accept.
Saturday's meeting, too, did not take place after doctors spent a couple of hours outside the CM's home and insisted on live-streaming; the never-before-seen scene of a CM cajoling protesters to enter her residence played out on live television and, when the doctors finally relented after more than two hours, the government had had enough..
