Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 6: Amidst indefinite fast by the junior doctors demanding workplace safety and justice for their deceased colleague, for the first time the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital authorities in Kolkata took stern actions against some staff members and senior students expelling ten people, all close aides of the arrested former principle Sandip Ghosh, for alleged misconduct in the past.
The expelled people included doctors, house staff and interns and they have been charged with threatening others to fail examinations or get them ousted from the hostel, forcing other juniors to join a particular political party, sexual harassment and misconduct, forceful collection of money, lodging of false FIRs against students and physical violence.
Those expelled included Ashish Pandey, a house staff member close to Sandip Ghosh, who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with financial irregularities and corruption.
The medical college authorities held a special college council meeting on Saturday after a report from the Institutional Enquiry Committee and found these staff and students guilty and decided to expel them until further notice. Furthermore, names against whom “substantial evidence of sexual harassment against women” was found have been forwarded to the Internal Complaints Committee.
According to the order, the doctors and medical students were found to be guilty of threatening to fail others in university exams, threatening others with ouster from hostel, long hours of physical and mental torture, sexual harassment and misconduct, forcing others to join a particular political party and attend its rallies, forcing students, irrespective of sex, to attend boys’ common room to face “DIASING” (physical and mental torture), forcing juniors to buy drugs and alcohol at odd hours of night, forcing them to perform obscene acts at boys’ common room, forceful collection of money for college events without any audit, forceful exchange of intern/house staff duties for money, threatening to withhold internship completion, lodging of false FIRs against students, some as serious as sexual assault, physical violence on targeted students of Manicktala Hostel at midnight, and use of abusive language even in the name of parents.
After the rape and murder of a junior doctor at R G Kar Medical College, a section of junior doctors gave written complaints of “threat culture” on the campus. On September 10, the authorities of R G Kar Medical College sent notices to 51 doctors, house staff, and interns for allegedly engaging in behaviour that promotes a culture of intimidation. They were called before an inquiry committee. After a hearing and investigation by the inquiry committee, a report was submitted to the college authorities.
The agitating junior doctors demanding justice for the deceased trainee doctor and workplace safety continued their hunger strike on Sunday in the central part of the city’s Dharmatala area.
Several senior doctors, who have been at the protest site since Saturday night, are also planning to join their junior counterparts in the hunger strike. “The support of these people gives us the courage, the enthusiasm to continue our protest against the gruesome murder of our sister. We are happy to see that people have not forgotten that justice is yet not given and attacks on doctors are still on and the state government has no serious note of our demands,” Debasish Halder, one of the agitating doctors, told the media.
The junior medics started their hunger strike on Saturday night after the state government missed the 24-hour deadline set by them to fulfil their demands. They had on Friday begun a sit-in demonstration at the Dorina crossing in Dharmatala area following an alleged assault by Kolkata Police personnel.
To maintain transparency, the junior medics have installed CCTV cameras at the dais where their colleagues are holding the strike. The six doctors who were sitting on the fast included Snigdha Hazra, Tanaya Panja and Anustup Mukhopadhyay of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, SSKM Hospital’s Arnab Mukhopadhyay, Pulastha Acharya of NRS Medical College and Hospital, and Sayantani Ghosh Hazra of KPC Medical College.
The state would be held responsible if any doctor fell ill during the fast, the junior doctor said. A large number of common people gathered at the protest site and a few celebrities also joined them at the protest site since Saturday night.
On Friday the junior doctors had called off their ‘total cease work’, which had crippled healthcare services at state-run medical colleges and hospitals. The protesting doctors emphasised that securing justice for the deceased woman medic remains their foremost priority.
Among the other nine demands, they called for the immediate removal of Health Secretary NS Nigam, as well as accountability for the alleged administrative incompetence and corruption in the Health department. Other demands include the establishment of a centralised referral system for all hospitals and medical colleges in the state, implementation of a bed vacancy monitoring system, and formation of task forces to ensure essential provisions for CCTV, on-call rooms, and washrooms at their workplaces.
They are also demanding increased police protection in hospitals, recruitment of permanent women police personnel, and swift filling of vacant positions for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers.
The new Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma has in the meanwhile released a Durga Puja Guide for 2024 with an assurance that the Durga Puja celebrations would be peaceful and the police would act if there were unforeseen or unplanned protests.
This move was announced as the city has witnessed many organised protests in the last two months since the rape and murder of the 31-year old postgraduate trainee doctor in the seminar hall of the RG Kar medical college on August 9. Answering a question on the probable R.G. Kar protests during the Durga Pujas, Mr Verma said, “We have all kinds of preparations. Depending on the situation we will deal with it. We are hoping that there will be no issues during the Durga Pujas and no hindrances will be caused.”
Mr Verma assured that the Kolkata Police has taken all measures for the upcoming Durga Pujas. “From traffic control, crowd circulation and management, and other security measures are already in motion.”
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also been on the streets inaugurating Durga Puja pandals for the last two days. At an event at Sreebhumi Durga Puja, she said they have made arrangements for fire brigade bikes to help access narrow lanes in case of any unforeseen fire situations. Ms Banerjee said, “There are many places fire engines cannot go through because the lanes are so narrow. Police has also launched some e-cycles, women will be given e-cycles so they can find ease in transport and go places.”
Government officials are in anticipation of protests erupting during the Durga Pujas and in front of pandals and are taking multiple measures to keep these incidents in check. Even during Mahalaya, October 2, the day that marks the beginning of Durga Puja, Kolkata saw huge number of protests by doctors and the civil society. With this precedence in mind, the security has been amped up and multiple factions of the State machinery have urged the public to cooperate.
“We will always have justice, injustice, and protests, but Durga Puja brings us joy, puts food on many of our plates. The pujas are socially, economically, and culturally important to us. So, we should not do something during this time that causes problems for people who are visiting us from outside. A crime has happened in Bengal (referring to R.G. Kar case), justice will be served, punishment will be given, but we must not boycott the pujas,” Firhad Hakim, Kolkata Mayor and West Bengal Minister of Urban Development said at an event at Tala Prottoy Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata.
