Junior doctors team depart from Nabanna (State Secretariat) after not attending meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: The agitating junior doctors on Thursday blamed the West Bengal administration for its rigidness in not allowing live streaming of the meeting to resolve the RG Kar stalemate and asserted that they never sought the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as offered by her.
Dubbing Banerjee's remarks blaming the medics for the impasse as unfortunate, the doctors said their 'cease work' and agitation would continue until their demands are met.
“The chief minister's remarks are unfortunate. We wanted the talks to take place. However, the state administration was adamant about not allowing live streaming of the meeting. Our demands are justified. We wanted live streaming for the transparency of the meeting,” one of the agitating doctors told reporters.
The agitators refused to hold talks with the West Bengal government unless their demand for live streaming of the meeting was met.
The talks were scheduled for 5 pm in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, as demanded by the protesters.
The CM waited for more than two hours to meet the agitating junior doctors. However, the meeting did not take place as scheduled.
“We had never asked for her resignation and are neither here to press for it. We are here with our demands for the sake of justice for the murdered doctor of RG Kar Hospital. We wanted to resolve this issue. We are extremely unhappy that the talks did not take place. But we will still wait for a response from the administration,” the agitating doctor said.
Another medic said the protestors never sought the resignation of Banerjee.
“This is not our aim at all, our aim is justice (for the murdered RG Kar hospital doctor). Nowhere in our five demands have we demanded her resignation. Our demand is clear. We want those creating hurdles in the path of justice to be brought under the purview of law. Not even the parents of the victim have demanded her resignation,” she said.
Banerjee, expressing regret over the junior doctors' refusal to negotiate, urged them to return to work and asserted that she is even "ready to resign and leave the post for the sake of the people." Claiming that despite her best efforts over the past three days to sit for talks with the protesting medics, Banerjee stated that the talks with the junior doctors cannot be live-streamed as demanded because the issue is sub-judice and before the Supreme Court.
“We have waited for three days but they did not come… I hope that the people understand that they do not want justice... they want the chair. I am ready to resign from my post for the sake of the people. I want justice for the victim, and for the people of the state,” Banerjee said.