'Mamata govt spreading falsehood, misleading SC': Kolkata doctors refuse to end protest despite court order

“It’s a people’s movement… the Supreme Court should not forget that,” said that doctors in Kolkata who declared that they would continue with their protest against the rape and murder of 31-year-old junior doctor at state-run RG Kar Hospital.  

The protesting junior doctors in Kolkata were given a deadline by the Supreme Court till 5 pm Tuesday (September 10) to end their agitation and resume working.  

Hours after the apex court’s order, the doctors said that the protest is “a people’s movement and neither the government nor the Supreme Court should forget that."  

Kolkata doctors to continue to ‘cease work’

The Kolkata junior doctors said they would continue their strike and ‘cease work’ in protest. They are demanding the resignation of the state’s health secretary and director of health education.  

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“Our demands are unfulfilled and justice is not meted out to the victim. We will continue our agitation as well as the ‘cease work’,” a report by PTI quoted the protesting doctors as saying.  

Disheartened by SC’s order

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) of West Bengal said it was disheartened by the SC’s orders asking junior doctors to resume duties when the justice has not been served in RG Kar rape and murder case.

In a press release, the medical body alleged, “No steps have been taken for a speedy trial to ensure justice."  

The IMA of West Bengal further mentioned that it was “disheartened” by the order of the Supreme Court’s order on junior doctors.  

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Protesting Junior Doctors announces to continue their ceasework until demands met. They have hit back at both State Government & Kapil Sibbal for maligning their movement & termed them to be spreading falsehoods against them. In protest, a Swasthya Bhavan Abhijaan has been called… pic.twitter.com/2mT5FJdyV3

— Sudhanidhi Bandyopadhyay (@SudhanidhiB) September 10, 2024

It also expressed disappointment with the portrayal of “the junior doctors as responsible for a few deaths in the hospitals.”  

Refuting the charge, the IMA said that nowhere the hospital services were hampered due to the protesting junior doctors.    

The West Bengal Health Department, in its affidavit, has claimed that 23 people have died due to the doctors’ strike.

“The junior doctors are fighting against the health syndicate to prevent such crimes in the future… In this situation, the IMA promises to stand by the junior doctors unconditionally in all their future movements,” the IMA said.  

“The protest will not die down; it will only grow stronger,” the IMA asserted.

‘Justice still out of reach’

Reacting on the SC’s order, spokesperson of RG Kar said: “We are extremely disappointed by the Supreme Court hearing… the case has been transferred from the High Court to the Supreme Court, from the state police to the CBI. But justice is still out of reach."  

Doctors planning to take out protest rally

Meanwhile, protesting doctors are planning to take out a rally to ‘Swasthya Bhavan’ – the headquarters of the health department in Salt Lake – on Tuesday afternoon.

Doctors in Kolkata and most parts of the country have been protesting for about a month, demanding justice for the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee residential doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata whose body was found with multiple injury marks in a seminar room of facility on August 9.  

She was raped and killed while on duty.

With inputs from agencies.