After meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, the protesting junior doctors ended their hunger strike. They also called off their planned health strike, which was set to begin on Tuesday if the state government did not meet their demands.
The junior doctors, who have been protesting since the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on September 9, clarified that ending their hunger strike does not imply that the government has fulfilled all their demands.
After the meeting, the doctors questioned the intentions of state government officials, including the Chief Minister. They claimed they felt intimidated during the discussion and that CM Banerjee did not give them the opportunity to speak freely or present their demands adequately.
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The junior doctors voiced their disappointment with the state government’s actions so far, telling the press that they believed even if they went on a health strike, the administration would still ignore their demands. These demands include holding college union elections, implementing centralized referral systems, and setting up inquiry committees to investigate health officials accused of corruption, among other issues.
At the Monday meeting, the West Bengal government notified the doctors that students’ union elections would be conducted in all medical colleges by March 2025. The government also assured them that all enquiry committees would be established after considering their recommendations.
The nearly two-hour-long meeting included some tense exchanges. Chief Minister Banerjee criticised the junior doctors, stating that their lawyer’s assertion in the Supreme Court during the RG Kar case hearing—that state government medical facilities only had cotton available—had damaged West Bengal’s reputation nationwide.
She also cited that this claim went against the fact that one in every four medical facilities run by the West Bengal government attained the National Quality Assurance Standards (NQAS) certification, highest among all Indian states.
“The party in Centre is against us. Then why did the central government place us at the top?,” she asked.
