Bengal doctors end week-long strike after meeting Mamata Banaerjee

June 17: The week-long strike by the junior doctors in West Bengal was called off after their meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. During her meeting with representatives of the doctors earlier in the day, Banerjee had accepted the proposal of doctors to set up Grievance Redressal Cell in government hospitals. she had also directed Kolkata Police commissioner Anuj Sharma to deploy a nodal police officer in every hospital.

On Monday, Mamta Banerjee met with 31 representatives of the agitating doctors in the state. Besides 31 junior doctors, West Bengal health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, health secretary Anil Verma and other state officials also attended the meeting. Though the agitating doctors sought a public meeting in presence of the media, the state government allowed only two regional news channels to cover the event.The CM added that the government has taken adequate measures. “We have arrested five people involved in the NRS hospital  incident,” she said.

The assault by a mob on Dr Paribaha Mukherjee, an intern at the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College, on 11 June sparked widespread protests in the state, and found support from doctors across the nation. Following Banerjee’s 24-hour ultimatum to end the strike, the protests spread further, and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) declared a nation-wide doctors’ strike on Monday.

Union minister Babul Supriyo said Mamata Banerjee was responsible for the medical crisis across the country. “Had Mamata not been an egotist, she should have met the injured doctors on the first day and provided then with securirty. But Mamata rebuked them and threatened them with ESMA (a law against strikes by employees in essential services),” he added.