The 11-day sit-in protest had ended on Friday and by next day, Saturday all ‘traces’ of it were erased from the streets and walls of Salt Lake.

The road in front of the Swastha Bhawan, the health department headquarters, was being cleaned. The junior doctors had been staging their protest at the site in front of the health headquarters.

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Work began on Saturday morning in “war-like urgency.” Slogans and protest art graffiti were being removed from the walls and a fresh coat of paint was being applied.

“We want justice is a movement, which is written in the heart of the people. It can’t be erased,” said Dr Kinjal Nanda, a junior doctor of R G Kar. The road in front of the Nabadiganta Bhavan in Salt Lake’s Sector V is not wide one. Adjacent to it is the health administrative headquarters, in front of which the junior doctors sat in protest. The road beside it had been filled with slogans of protest. The walls of nearby buildings had also been painted with various protest images. Protesters had written slogans everywhere, demanding justice – on the sidewalks, doors, windows, and even manhole covers, all of which had been coloured with protest art. Until Friday, these images, colours and writings were clearly visible on the road next to the Swastha Bhawan. But by Saturday, all traces of the protest had disappeared. Who is responsible for erasing these slogans? On whose orders was this “clean-up operation” being carried out? No one had any answers.

On Saturday afternoon, about 15 workers were seen on that Sector V road. Some were pouring black paint on the street, while others were coating blue paint on the footpaths. Just a day before, this road and the walls had been resounding with protest slogans. The freshly-painted blue walls looked as if they had never been touched by any other colour. When asked why they were painting over it, one worker paused from applying black paint over the slogans and said, “We’re doing what our contractor told us to. He’s not here right now. We started this work in the morning, removing the paint with thinner.” On being asked under whose orders this was being done, the reply came, “We don’t know!” There were no answers to further questions about who, why, or when.

The protest had started after the body of a female doctor was found at R G Kar Hospital on 9 August. Junior doctors had been on strike for 42 days. On Saturday, they resumed emergency services, and the partial strike was lifted. The R G Kar case had even reached the Supreme Court. After the apex court ordered the junior doctors to return to work, they had staged a protest march to the health headquarters. A temporary sit-in site was set up with tarpaulins, and ordinary citizens had extended their support. Day and night, they stayed on chanting “We want justice!” The road in Sector V had echoed with their slogans for 11 consecutive days.

From Saturday, the junior doctors had returned to emergency services. Within a day of the cease-work ending, efforts were underway to restore the protest site to its previous state. Some people speculate that this quick restoration is due to the upcoming Durga Puja. Typically, before the festival, roads and walls around Kolkata are repaired and repainted.