Pooja Mahabadi, Pune
The junior doctors have decided to call off their strikes on Friday, 20th September 2024 after West Bengal’s chief Secretary Manoj Pantptomised the students’ safety and stability and safety measures.
As the calls from the government and judiciary requesting the doctors to resume work make way in Kolkata the doctors in the city have laid down some demands before Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to stop the protest and start their work again.
The State government has come forth and promised the doctors that no adverse actions will be taken against them and they should stay calm and trust the government in delivering the demands and requests of the doctors but they stand strong saying until they do not see any concrete changes in the situation and safety measures or unless the victim is delivered with justice on all fronts they will continue to protest.
The doctors had earlier tried to have a conversation twice with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; they have now put forth five demands ahead of the TMC-led government.
The demands are as follows; 42 doctors along with government officials had a meeting with Mamata Banerjee on Monday and agreed on most demands laid in front of the CM.
- Analyzing the minutes of the meetings, the TMC government has agreed to sanction 100 crore rupees for the infrastructural development of hospitals and reinstating patient welfare committees.
- The junior doctors would be represented by a Special Task Force which would be headed by the Chief Secretary and the Police Commissioner.
- There will be an establishment of a grievance redressal mechanism across the statewide ecosystem of hospitals and medical colleges.
- The doctors demanded the removal of the Kolkata Police Commissioner Vinnet Goyal along with the North’s DC Abhishek Gupta blaming them of being involved in misleading the case and tampering with the evidence and witnesses.
- They also wanted the removal of the Director of Health Services (DHS) and Director of Medical Education (DME) from their respective positions.
The government on Tuesday, 17th September replaced Vineet Goyal with Manoj Kumar Verma, they also had the DC (north) of Police removed.
The government is working towards placing CCTV cameras in and around hospitals and increasing police deployment, keeping women’s safety in mind.