A section of junior medics on Saturday floated a new platform West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Association (WBJDA) to counter their West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), a body formed by postgraduate trainee (PGT) doctors, house staff and interns of different state government medical colleges, demanding justice for the brutal rape and murder of the 31-year-old woman PGT at R G Kar hospital on 9 August and end ‘threat culture’ in teaching hospitals for years.
Soon after the incident at the R G Kar Medical College WBJDF’s leading members like Dr Aniket Mahato, Dr Debashis halder, Dr Kinjal Nanda, Dr Rumelika Kumar and others had brought strong allegations of the ‘threat culture’.
Today, the newly-floated WBJDA, reportedly backed by the Trinamul Congress while countering their counterpart WBJDF told reporters during a press conference that the latter has raised funds Rs 4.75 crore in the name of ‘justice for R G Kar’ movement.
“We would meet the chief minister to inform her about it. They (WBJDF) are creating a state of lawlessness in state-run healthcare establishments in the name of ‘justice for R G Kar’. We were the first who had launched a protest movement demanding for the heinous incident keeping healthcare services in government hospitals normal. We didn’t stop work but organised protests,” said junior doctor Shrish Chakraborty of WBJDA.
“They (WBJDF) started a threat culture against us because we didn’t agree with their cease-work in government hospitals. The inquiry committee of the R G Kar Hospital under their pressure suspended our 53 junior doctors and tried to end our career. Dr Shrish Chakraborty and Dr Sourav Das were among the suspended junior doctors,” they said.
Protesting against the suspension order, the junior doctors moved the Calcutta High Court and got a stay on the inquiry committee’s decision to suspend them.
“Aniket Mahato has branded us as ‘notorious criminals’ in front of the chief minister. Are they not criminals even after raising funds in crores?” he said.
On the other hand, the WBJDF organised a mass convention at the R G Kar Medical College Hospital campus this afternoon and threatened to intensify their protest movements till their unresolved issues, including justice for the deceased, end of ‘threat culture’, streamlining of referral systems of patients seeking admissions to government hospitals.
The WBJDF members alleged that an unhealthy environment triggered by ‘threat culture’ prevailed in all medical colleges. The newly formed organisation of the junior doctors is the perpetrators of this culture, the front members said in the convention.
“We have already submitted evidence of threat culture sponsored by these perpetrators to the concerned authorities,” Dr Mahato said.