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Kolkata doctors' strike called off, but protest to continue. Here are their 5 demands
Junior doctors have been protesting in Kolkata for more than a month and have refused to resume work until their demands are met defying a Supreme Court order
Protesting junior doctors have decided to call off their strike on Friday after West Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant assured safety and security implementations.
Amid calls from the government and the judiciary to resume work, the doctors outlined five demands before chief minister Mamata Banerjee to cease their protests and return back to work.
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While they were assured that no adverse action would be taken against them, and that the government would act on their requests, doctors have stated that until they witness concrete action on all fronts they will continue to be on strike.
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After two failed attempts at engaging in talks with the Mamata Banerjee-led government, the doctors placed the following demands in front of the authorities.
Doctors' demands
42 doctors met with chief minister Mamata Banerjee and other government officials on Monday and agreed on most of the demands put forth by the medics.
- According to the minutes of the meeting, the government agreed to sanction ₹100 crore for infrastructure development in hospitals and rebuilding patient welfare committees.
- A special task force would also be formulated headed by the chief secretary, with the police commissioner and representatives of junior doctors.
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- The government would also set up a grievance redressal mechanism across hospitals and medical colleges
- The doctors called for the removal of Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal due to allegations of mishandling the case and tampering with evidence. They also asked for the DC (North) Abhishek Gupta to be removed.
- They also called for the Director of Health Services (DHS) and Director of Medical Education (DME) in the state to be removed from their position.
The government on Tuesday replaced Vineet Goyal with Manoj Kumar Verma. They also removed the DC (north) of police, the DHS and the DME from their positions.
In line with orders from the Supreme Court as well, the government is working towards introducing updated safety mechanisms such as CCTV cameras at hospitals and increased police deployments at hospitals.
However, the formation of the taskforce and a comprehensive system for grievance redressal has not materialised yet.
While doctors rejoiced once the police commissioner and health officials were replaced, they remained skeptical of the government following through on all demands.
Junior doctor Aniket Mahata, told HT that until the government showed progress on all fronts, the protests would not stop. "The government should solve these issues so that we can resume duty at the earliest. The sit-in will continue,” he said.
According to PTI, doctors have decided to partially withdraw their strike, since a majority of their demands have been granted by the government and the state was suffering from a flood-like situation, heightening the need for medical attention.
The protesting doctors said they would not work in the Outpatient Department (OPD) but would participate in emergency and essential services.
