The West Bengal government and the protesting doctors are finalising the minutes after their nearly two-hour long meeting at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence in Kolkata got over.
The meeting, which was originally scheduled at 5 pm, began around 6:50 pm and ended around 9 pm.
A 35-member delegation of the protesting doctors reached the chief minister’s Kaligat residence at 6.20 pm after the state government agreed to their demand for a signed copy of the minutes of the meeting.
Earlier, the efforts to initiate a dialogue between the two sides had failed four times after the protesters insisted on their demand for a live-streaming of the talks.
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On Monday, the government extended a fresh invitation for talks, which the protesters accepted on condition that a signed copy of the meeting should be given to them. The government readily agreed to their demand paving way for the meeting in the evening.
Chief Secretary Manoj Pant in his letter inviting the protesters for the dialogue had mentioned that this was the “fifth and the final time” the government was reaching out to them.
“In line with our discussion the day before (Saturday), we are once again inviting you for the meeting with the CM at her Kalighat residence for discussions with an open mind," Pant had said.
In reply to the letter, the agitating doctors said they were willing to attend the meeting and place their demands before the chief minister.
"We would like to emphasise that the meeting be videographed by separate videographers of both the parties. If not possible from your side, entire video file of the meeting be handed over to the doctor representatives. If that is not possible, then the minutes of the full transcript of the meeting be recorded and formulated by both the parties and duly signed by all the attendees and handed over at the end of the meeting," they said.
West Bengal has been witnessing widespread protests by junior doctors and medical students ever since the body of the 31-year-old trainee doctor was found at the seminar hall of the RG Kar hospital on August 9. A civil volunteer has been arrested in the case.
The CBI, which took over the probe following a directive by the Calcutta High Court, has arrested former principal of the RG Kar medical college Sandip Ghosh in connection with a separate corruption case, while Abhijit Mondal, the officer-in-charge of Tala Police Station, was taken into custody for allegedly tampering with evidence and delaying registration of the FIR.