West Bengal: Junior doctors continue protest, slam CM for refusing to live telecast meeting

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], September 13 : Junior doctors in Kolkata in Friday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for rejecting their request to live telecast a meeting and for not meeting with them.
They argued that their request was reasonable, given that parliamentary discussions and many administrative meetings are broadcast live. The doctors expressed frustration over being asked to leave electronic gadgets outside the meeting hall, which prevented them from recording the proceedings.
Speaking to the media, Anustup Mukherjee, one of the doctors, said that they tried to negotiate for live telecasting the meeting with the state government, but that issue remained non-negotiable.
"If all parliamentary discussions can be live telecast, if even the Chief Minister herself encourages live telecast of all her administrative meetings, then perhaps our request was not unjustified. Also, as we are headed towards the discussion regarding our demands of justice and not any subjudice matter, we did not find any breach of code of law in our request for live telecast. We are also asked to leave all our electronic gadgets outside of meeting hall, which negates any chance of video recording from our side. But unfortunately, this issue remained non negotiable," Mukherjee told reporters.
Moreover, according to police sources, CBI officials, accompanied by central forces, visited the RG Kar victim's house. After a while, the victim's family--father, mother, and aunt--were seen leaving. Later, it was said that the CBI team took them to RG Kar Medical College Hospital.
The protesting doctors alleged that health services were disrupted due to their strike, which they denied.
"We have already mentioned in our previous press releases that all our facilities remain uninterrupted. That all our senior faculties are working relentlessly to keep health care services running, that we are merely trainees meant for learning treatment protocols, and that the healthcare of the state cannot depend only on the 3 per cent trainee doctors," they said.
Earlier, the state government announced financial relief for the families of those who died, allegedly due to health service disruptions caused by the junior doctors' strike related to the rape and murder of a trainee doctor.
The protesting doctors also said that they waited for hours outside the Nabbana (State Secretariat), but then the doors were closed. "We were really hurt when the meeting did not happen. We waited for three hours, just sitting there, but then everyone saw that Nabbana's doors were closed," said Akil Ashraf, one of the doctors.
The protesting doctors have also written a four-page letter to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking seeking her intervention in the case. The copies of the letter were also sent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union Health Minister JP Nadda.
"We humbly place the issues before your esteemed excellency, as the head of state, so that our unfortunate colleague who has been the victim of the most despicable crime shall receive justice, and so that we, the healthcare professionals under the West Bengal Health Department, may be able to discharge our duties to the public without fear and apprehension," the letter read.
"Yesterday, when the meeting did not happen, we were really pained by that. We waited for three hours, just sitting there, but then everyone saw that that Nabbana's doors had been closed," said Akil Ashraf.
The protesting doctors have also written a four page letter to President Droupadi Murmu, seeking seeking her intervention in the case. The copies of the letter were also sent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Union Health Minister JP Nadda.
"We humbly place the issues before your esteemed excellency, as the head of state, so that our unfortunate colleague who has been the victim of the most despicable crime shall receive justice, and so that we, the healthcare professionals under the West Bengal Health Department, may be able to discharge our duties to the public without fear and apprehension," the letter read.