RG Kar protest: Total cease-work to resume again unless demands fulfilled by Monday, cautions junior doctors

Kolkata, Oct 19 (WISHAVWARTA /IANS) West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of the junior doctors spearheading the movement in support of their demands on the rape and murder of a lady junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, on Friday night cautioned the state government of resuming their total cease-work protest unless their demands in the matter are not fulfilled by October 21. WBJDF representative and one of the lead faces of the movement by junior doctors on this issue, Debasish Halder told media persons on Friday night that they are compelled to take this decision since the state government is reluctant to show a compassionate approach in fulfilling their demands in the matter “If the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee does not accept our demands by Monday, from Tuesday we will be forced to go for total cease-work at medical colleges & hospitals from Tuesday,” Halder said on Friday night. He announced this decision after a meeting between the junior and senior doctors. “The decision was only after consultation with their senior colleagues,” said Halder. He also announced that a mega rally from the residence of the victim junior doctor at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district to Esplanade, the venue of continuing fast-unto-death protests by junior doctors, will be organised on Saturday. Halder invited the common people to participate in the rally, adding that there would be protest demonstrations at every medical college and hospital in the state, state-run or private, in support of their demands. Earlier, Sayantani Ghosh Hazra, a junior doctor of K.P.C. Medical College & Hospital and who is one of the six doctors initiating the hunger strike at Esplanade since the evening of October 5, raised a question on how the Chief Minister could get swayed in Durga Puja celebration when so many junior doctors are on hunger- strike. “Does not she have any sense of humanity? Could she not visit us just once and assure us of fulfilling our demands” Sayantani said. –RG Kar protest