Promises to keep
Promises matter in elections because voters lack rationality. As election history shows, freebies do get votes. Hitherto, it was a time tested method of electoral success for a desperate opposition.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday issued a four-hour ultimatum to junior doctors in the state to return back to work after their protest over the attack on a colleague entered the third day.
Mamata had visited the state-run SSKM hospital in Kolkata where she asked the agitating junior doctors to return to work. She was faced with ”we want justice” slogans.
At the Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital, the agitating junior doctors have demanded the CM to come to the hospital in person.
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As the gates of state-run medical institutions closed following the assault of an intern in a city hospital, patients were left in the lurch as they were denied basic healthcare.
The death of 75-year-old Mohammed Shahid had led to the relatives of the deceased clashing with the junior doctors over alleged negligence.
An intern Paribaha Mukherjee of NRS Medical College and Hospital sustained a serious skull injury in the attack and was admitted in the intensive care unit of the Institute of Neurosciences in Kolkata’s Park Circus area.
Consequently, junior doctors locked up the hospital gates, stopped work at the OPD and started a ‘dharna’ to protest against the attack.
The agitating junior doctors in various state-run medical institutions said there will be no work until they are given full protection.
Family members of patients at the state-run SSKM Hospital also started a simultaneous protest by occupying the streets outside and blocking traffic on the AJC Bose Road crossing demanding treatment of their ailing kin.
Earlier on Wednesday, both Trinamool Congress and BJP leaders urged normalcy of health services in West Bengal and requested the hospitals to resume work.
“Not just on behalf of Trinamool Congress, but as a citizen of the country, I condemn the attack on the doctors. But one should not forget that immediate action has been taken against the culprits. They have been arrested,” Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee told reporters.
Meanwhile, BJP leaders directly blamed TMC for the ruckus at the hospital.
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