The West Bengal Junior Doctors' Forum's sit-in protest in front of the state Health Department headquarters at Salt Lake against the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital last month was officially lifted on Friday evening.
The protesters had declared late Thursday they would withdraw the protest, and the formal statement was made after the junior doctors led a protest rally up to the office of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) office at CGO Complex, also in Salt Lake, on Friday evening.
Through the rally, the junior doctors demanded that the central agency complete the probe at the earliest and ensure justice for the victim.
However, the protesting doctors reiterated that although they have decided to withdraw their cease-work agitation, the withdrawal would be partial. They said they would join duty but only in the "general emergency" departments in different medical colleges & hospitals from Saturday. They said they will also be participating in the medical camps to be opened by the state government amidst the looming health crisis in the wake of the post-flood situation in the state.
Even when announcing the official calling off of their protests, the junior doctors cautioned that the partial calling off of the cease work might be temporary and it would resume if their demands, which the state government has claimed to have accepted, are not fulfilled on paper.
"Already some of our demands, like the replacement of the Kolkata Police Commissioner and some other key officials in the state Health Department, have already been met. The state government has promised to fulfill our demands, which include adequate safety measures for us in the medical colleges and hospitals to prevent the recurrence of such ghastly tragedies.". While we will continue our legal battle at the Supreme Court, we will also keep a watch on whether the state government is really serious about fulfilling the promises they made about meeting our demands," said a protesting junior doctor.
Read also| RG Kar Rape-Murder Case: CBI Granted 3-Day Custody of Sandip Ghosh and Abhijit Mondal
