'Waited For 2 Hours': RG Kar Doctors-Bengal Govt Deadlock Continues Over Live Streaming of Key Meet

New Delhi: The standoff between the Bengal government and the junior doctors protesting the alleged rape and murder of their colleague at Kolkata's RG Kar Hospital last month continued as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to meet the medics' demand to live stream the crucial meeting scheduled at Nabanna, further prolonging the impasse. The protestors who reached the secretariat at around 5.25 pm, some 25 minutes past the scheduled time of commencement of the meeting, stayed put at the venue threshold for over an hour and were seen engaged in meetings even as a high-strung battle of nerves ensued between the two sides with both staying firm on their respective stands.

Senior police officials at the venue, including DGP Rajeev Kumar, ADG (South Bengal) Supratim Sarkar and even state chief secretary Manoj Pant, who were seen engaged in back-to-back discussions with the doctors’ delegation and other officials, failed to convince the unrelenting doctors who refused to budge.  All this while, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was reportedly waiting at the venue to take part in the meeting. We have been waiting for two hours to meet our brothers and sisters among the doctors. We had written to them and they said they would come... and that is why we made these arrangements. The Chief Secretary, the Director-General of Police, Home Secretary... were all here”,  said Banerjee, while addressing a presser. 

She added, "I have waited for two days for them to come... but we respect their sentiment and forgive them."   

Earlier in the day, addressing a presser, West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said, "We have tried our best to make them understand. We have explained to them what all arrangements have been made. We have made recording arrangements so that the entire proceedings are well documented. There should be trust between the two parties... We want to listen to them. There should not be any difference or opinion in it, there is no conflict situation. Both of us are working with the same objective. So I don't understand why they are feeling that unless there is live streaming we will not go to the meeting. We want to document everything and discuss it with them properly."