Won't attend meeting called by Mamata Banerjee today: Striking doctors
After her visit to the state-run SSKM Hospital on Thursday, Mamata Banerjee had alleged some outsiders had entered the medical colleges to create disturbances. She had also dubbed the agitation as a handiwork of the CPI(M) and the BJP.
Striking junior doctors on Saturday morning said they will not attend a meeting called by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat in the evening.
On Friday, Mamata Banerjee invited striking junior doctors again to meet her on Saturday evening to end the impasse in government hospitals.
The doctors, who struck work for the fourth day on Friday, refused to meet the chief minister, demanding an unconditional apology from her.
They also put up six conditions for withdrawal of their stir.
"We want an unconditional apology from Chief Minister Banerjee for the manner in which she addressed us at the SSKM Hospital yesterday. She should not have said what she said. She should come to the NRS Hospital to meet us," said Dr Arindam Dutta, a spokesperson of the joint forum of junior doctors.
After her visit to the state-run SSKM Hospital on Thursday, Banerjee had alleged some outsiders had entered the medical colleges to create disturbances. She had also dubbed the agitation as a handiwork of the CPI(M) and the BJP.
She had also asked the agitating junior doctors across the state to resume work by 2 pm, failing which she had threatened them with disciplinary actions. The doctors had defied her warning.
State Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, meanwhile, said he had called up Banerjee to discuss the issue of doctors' strike but got no response from her.
"I tried to contact the chief minister. I called her up. Till this moment there is no response from her. If she calls me up, we will discuss the matter," he told reporters after visiting injured junior doctor Paribaha Mukhopadhyay at the hospital.
Mukhopadhyay is one of the two junior doctors attacked by the relatives of a patient, who died at the NRS Medical College and Hospital here Monday night. The attack on the doctors triggered the ongoing state-wide stir by medicos.
Banerjee, however, held a two-hour-long meeting with senior doctors, who were not part of the strike, and invited the agitating doctors for talks at the secretariat Nabanna tonight.
After the protesting doctors refused to meet the chief minister, dubbing the invitation as a ploy to derail their stir, she invited them yet again to meet her at 5 pm Saturday at Nabanna. Informing about the chief minister's second invitation, senior physician Sukumar Mukherjee said, "We hope some junior doctors will turn up."
The agitating doctors earlier stipulated six conditions for breaking the logjam.
Chief Minister Banerjee must visit the injured doctors at the hospital and issue a statement condemning the attack on them.
Seeking immediate intervention of the chief minister, the doctors also demanded a judicial probe into the police inaction in providing security to doctors at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital against attack on Monday night.
The agitators also demanded unconditional withdrawal of all "false cases and charges" imposed on junior doctors and medical students across West Bengal for going on strike.
They also sought improvement of security infrastructure in all health facilities and posting of armed police personnel to shield them from any attack while on duty.
Meanwhile, Resident Doctors Association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has issued 48 hours ultimatum to West Bengal government to meet the demands of the striking doctors.
"We issue an ultimatum of 48 hours to West Bengal government to meet demands of the striking doctors there, failing which we would be forced to resort to an indefinite strike at AIIMS," ANI quoted Resident Doctors Association as saying on Saturday.
WATCH VIDEO: Doctors' Strike, Day 5: Kolkata doctors seek apology from Mamata Banerjee
(With inputs from agencies)