Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 8: Around 50 senior doctors of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on Tuesday tendered their resignations and more in other government-run hospital in West Bengal are expected to follow suit, to express their solidarity with the striking junior doctors who are on an indefinite fast demanding justice for the deceased woman doctor who was raped and murdered at the facility on August 9 while on duty.
The health ministry sources have confirmed the resignations but said the government had not yet acted on the papers.
The decision to resign en masse was taken at a meeting of the heads of the departments of the State-run hospital held on Tuesday morning. “This has been decided at today’s meeting of the HoDs. Around 50 senior doctors of our hospital have signed their resignation letters. This is to express our solidarity towards those young doctors who are fighting for a cause,” a senior doctor said.
Senior doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital were also mulling to follow the footsteps of their colleagues in the RG Kar hospital, he said. The Joint Platform of Doctors, West Bengal pledged solidarity with the junior medics who are demanding justice for their deceased colleague and also an end to the ‘corruption-ridden’ healthcare system.
While seven junior doctors have been on fast-unto-death for the last four days, voicing their demands, there has been “no response from the appropriate authority to solve the issues,” a statement issued by the platform said. The doctor’s platform also voiced concern over the health condition of those who are on the fast-unto-death and said they were fighting for “campus democracy and patient-friendly system. In this situation, we will stand in solidarity,” the statement said.
The doctors’ platform also appealed to medics who are in the private sector to “take some befitting action,” according to the statement signed by Dr Punyabrata Gun and Dr Hiralal Konar as joint convenors of the organisation.
Despite the West Bengal government urging them to return to work, seven junior doctors continued their ‘fast-unto-death’ on Tuesday, amid Durga Puja festivities. Around 15 senior doctors also joined them in solidarity by staging a symbolic hunger strike. The senior doctors started their hunger strike at 9 am at Dorina Crossing in the Esplanade area of central Kolkata, where the medics have been on ‘fast-unto-death’ since Saturday evening.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant had on Monday urged the agitating doctors to “return to normal duties” and hoped that 90 per cent of the ongoing projects taken at all the state-run medical colleges and hospitals across West Bengal would be completed by next month. The bureaucrat claimed that over 45 per cent of the work for installation of CCTVs was complete, and 62 per cent of the renovation and construction jobs were done.
The RG Kar medical college authorities have already sacked at least 10 doctors, house staff and other staff members of the college close to the former principal Sandip Ghosh who was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for alleged financial irregularities in running the medical college. The sacked staff members were charged with running a racket of extorting money from some students threatening them of failing in examinations. There were several other charges also registered against them including working for a particular political party and other misdeeds.
A designated CBI court had earlier while denying bail to Dr Ghosh had observed that the nature and gravity of the accusation against him were “grave and it can attract capital punishment if proved.” The CBI had arrested Dr Ghosh and former officer-in-charge of Tala police station, Abhijit Mondal, allegedly for tampering with evidences of the rape and murder of the medic.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate S. Dey in his order had stated that from the case diary it appeared that the process of investigation by the central probe agency was in full swing and “the nature and gravity of the accusation is grave, and if proved, it may attract capital punishment, which is handed in the rarest of rare cases.” The Judge said the court was of the opinion that “it would be injustice flouting the principle of equity to release the accused on bail.”
He said in the order that a person may commit an offence with the help of other/s, and there is no need to be present for the other accused at the place of occurrence. The court also rejected the bail prayer of Abhijit Mondal. It granted the CBI’s prayer for judicial custody of the two accused.