West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Makes A fervent Plea To Protesting Junior Doctors

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged the junior doctors protesting the rape and murder of their colleague at R G Kar Hospital to end their fast-unto-death stir, stating that most of their demands have been addressed while rejecting their insistence on removing the state health secretary.

Taking forward the proposal for talks, Chief Secretary Manoj Pant later in the evening invited the medics for talks with Banerjee for ’45 minutes’ on Monday at the state secretariat, conditional upon the ‘withdrawal of the hunger strike’.

However, the protesting doctors refused to end their hunger strike until all their demands were met but agreed to join the talks .

Speaking to the doctors over the phone during a visit by Pant and Home Secretary Nandini Chakraborty to the protest site in Esplanade this afternoon, Banerjee said, “Everybody has the right to protest, but it shouldn’t affect healthcare services. I would request you all to withdraw your fast.”

Banerjee rejected the junior doctors’ demand for the removal of state Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam, explaining that ‘it is not possible to remove everyone in a department at once; we have already removed the DHS and DME, so please rise above politics and rejoin work’.