Normal life in Kolkata might get paralysed on Friday after different political parties announced to hold parallel programmes over the ongoing fiasco at the state-tun R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital where a junior doctor was brutally raped and murdered last week.
The ruling Trinamool Congress will take out a rally to press the demand raised by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday that the CBI probing the case must conclude its investigation by Sunday (August 18) and ensure that those found guilty are hanged.
The rally led by the Chief Minister from Moulali to Esplanade will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday. Banerjee is expected to address a gathering at the end of the rally.
On Wednesday, the Chief Minister said: “We are going to press for the hanging of the accused by Sunday. Our Kolkata Police had already completed 90 per cent of the investigation. I am going to lead a protest march on August 16… I request all the mothers and sisters to join me.”
A couple of days after the body of the victim was found in the seminar hall of the hospital on August 9, Banerjee had set a deadline till Sunday for the Kolkata Police to complete the investigation, failing which she said the case would be handed over to the CBI.
However, before the said deadline, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday handed over the probe to the central agency with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, the state unit of the BJP has called for a two-hour cease-work at all state government establishments across Bengal on Friday as a token protest against the R.G. Kar fiasco, starting the from rape and murder of the junior doctor to the ransacking of the emergency department of the hospital after midnight on Wednesday.
The BJP has also called for road-blockades in all the districts from 2 p,m. on Friday.
The CPI(M) too has announced agitation programmes throughout the state demanding the arrest of Sandip Ghosh, who resigned as the principal of R.G. Kar on Monday.
The SUCI (Communist) has also called for a 12-hour general strike in West Bengal on Friday.
Meanwhile, the state Secretariat issued a notification on Thursday evening which says no attempt to disrupt normal functioning at government offices and other places will be tolerated, and the administration will adopt all possible measures to maintain normalcy.