Trinamul Congres leaders urged the agitating junior doctors, on strike, demanding justice and stringent punishment of those involved in the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital to resume duties before 5pm tomorrow.
The junior doctors have been on strike since 9 August.
Addressing the media at Trinamul Bhavan, state education minister Bratya Basu and party Lok Sabha MP Partha Bhowmick urged the junior doctors to resume duties, following the directive of the Chief Justice of India. He said both Mamata Banerjee and party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee have expressed their solidarity with the movement launched by the doctors and both have said that stringent punishment should be given to the person involved which is nothing short of capital punishment.
Mr Basu said so far 24 people have died after failing to get proper medical assistance in state-run hospitals. He said today a person died of Dengue in south Dum Dum Municipality area.
Trinamul Congress in its X-handle wrote: “Following the heartbreaking incidents at Konnagar and SSKM, yet another innocent life was lost in south Dum Dum due to the absence of medical care. While protests have their place, they cannot come at the cost of human lives. The situation has now reached a tipping point, where delayed treatments are claiming lives. Doctors must heed the Supreme Court’s directive and resume their duties immediately.”
Mr Basu said the state administration is making no stone unturned to provide safety and security to the doctors.
Partha Bhowmick said it is unfortunate that some people are trying to divert the attention of the people and change the direction of the movement. “The original demand was for stringent punishment of the accused and now the demand is for the resignation of the chief minister. The opposition parties are trying to use the situation to their benefit,” he said.