RG Kar Hospital Junior Doctors Go On Hunger Strike Demanding Justice For Abhaya

Kolkata: The junior doctors, protesting against the RG Kar Medical Hospital rape and murder case, on Saturday evening, went on fast unto death, claiming that the West Bengal government did not meet their demands. While announcing their decision to go on a hunger strike, they said until and unless their two-point demands are fulfilled, they won’t end their hunger strike. Furthermore, they asserted that during the hunger strike, if any of them got ill, the responsibility would be on the Trinamool-led government of West Bengal. 

Three days before the Durga Puja festivities started, the doctors had begun a sit-in demonstration on Friday at the Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala in the heart of Kolkata, setting a 24-hour deadline for the state government to fulfil their demands.

The Junior doctors at RG Kar Hospital had earlier given an ultimatum to the Mamata Banerjee government in the state announcing a sit-in hunger protest after 24 hours. They said that their protest would continue at the Dharmatala metro channel area, even during the Durga Puja festival.

They also asserted that they will return to full cease work till the government takes immediate action on safety, patient services, and what they described as the "politics of fear."

Earlier, agitating junior doctors demanding justice for the RG Kar medic on Friday evening called off their 'total cease work' at state-run medical colleges and hospitals, but, threatened to launch a hunger strike till death if the West Bengal government did not meet their demands within 24 hours.

"We are calling off our 'total cease work'. But we will continue our sit-in protest. We will give the state administration 24 hours to fulfil our demands or else we will start a hunger strike till death," an agitating doctor, Debasish Halder of Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, said.

Holding clocks in their hands, the doctors reiterated their demands including the directive to form a central enquiry committee for disciplinary proceedings against alleged perpetrators involved in "threat culture" in all medical colleges of West Bengal, among others.