West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rejigged the Kolkata police department in a sudden move in the wee hours of Tuesday following her meeting with a delegation of 42 agitating junior doctors. Accepting doctors' demands, the CM removed Vineet Goyal as Kolkata Police Commissoner.
Why did doctors want Vineet Goyal removed?
The doctors have slammed Goyal over inaction when RG Kar hospital was vanadlised by a mob on August 14. Earlier, Mamata said Goyal was ready to resign but she had denied the request.
Besides Goyal, Mamata has also removed the Director of Medical Education (DME), the Director of Health Services (DHS) besides the Deputy Commissioner (North Division) who allegedly offered money to the parents of the RG Kar hospital postgraduate intern who was raped and murdered on August 9.
Mamata said the new police commissioner will be announced after 4 pm on Tuesday following the Supreme Court hearing on the RG Kar hospital case.
The move comes after the chief minister met the junior doctors at her Kalighat residence where she accepted the demands by the agitators to put an end to the deadlock. Doctors had stopped working across West Bengal for 38 days, affecting the healthcare system in the state.
The decision by the CM was reached after Chief Secretary Manoj Pant and the doctors came to an agreement. “We have accepted almost all demands of the doctors. Keeping in mind the plight of the common people, we did the best we could. I now appeal to the doctors to return to work,” Mamata said.
The CM said no disciplinary action would be taken against the protesting medics.
However, the doctors said the decisions are still on paper and they will continue protesting until the government takes action. “We will decide on what our next step would be after the hearing at the Supreme Court and after we confirm the government issuing those transfer orders it has promised,” said Dr Debasish Halder, one of the agitating doctors.
Dr Aniket Mahato, another protester, said Mamata is yet to agree on removal of the principal secretary of the health department or the DC (Central). “The discussions on the operating threat syndicate in hospitals and the thriving corruption racket remain incomplete. We only have verbal assurances on those matters so far. So our fight is far from over,” he added.
The government has also agreed to sanction Rs 100 crore for infrastructure development in hospitals for doctors and rebuilding of patient welfare committees. It has also agreed to set up a special task force headed by the chief secretary to tackle safety measures at hospitals. Other members include the home secretary, DGP, CP Kolkata and doctors' representatives.
Another demand accepted by the government was to form an effective and responsive grievance redressal mechanism in infrastructure across hospitals and medical colleges of the state.
