RG Kar impasse: Bengal junior doctors to hold march to CBI office in Salt Lake on Friday

The agitating junior doctors in West Bengal, who have announced withdrawal of their sit-in before Swasthya Bhavan, will hold a march to the CBI office in Salt Lake on Friday, seeking justice for the alleged rape and murder of a medic in the state-run RG Kar hospital last month. Ending the logjam persisting for the last 41 days, the junior doctors had on Thursday announced partial resumption of duties entailing the attending essential services in state-run hospitals from Saturday.

To mark the withdrawal of their 10-day dharna near the state health department's headquarters, they will organise the procession from their protest site to the CGO Complex, a distance of around 4 km, demanding a quick wrap-up of investigations.

The medics also announced setting up of Abhaya medical camps, in memory of the brutally murdered RG Kar post-graduate trainee doctor, in flood-affected regions of the state from Friday.


"Given the flood situation in West Bengal and the state government agreeing to certain demands of ours, we will be rejoining emergency and essential services partially from Saturday," an agitating doctor said on Thursday after their general body meeting.

The protesting doctors said they would not work in the Outpatient Department (OPD) but would partially work in emergency and essential services.

"We will wait for a week for the West Bengal government to implement all its promises and if unfulfilled, we will resume 'cease work'," the doctors said.

The announcements came shortly after Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, following up on issues discussed in Wednesday's meeting between the agitating junior doctors and the state task force, issued a list of directives on the safety, security and conducive environment for healthcare professionals, saying those orders need to be implemented immediately.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier transferred Kolkata Police chief Vineet Goyal and appointed Manoj Kumar Verma in his place, while also removing the directors of medical education and health services.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal Medical Council cancelled the registration of RG Kar Medical College's former principal Sandip Ghosh.

Ghosh, an orthopaedic surgeon currently in CBI custody, has been removed from the list of registered medical practitioners maintained by the WBMC.