Outdoor Patients Department (OPD) services in West Bengal government hospitals remained paralysed for the eighth day on Friday as protesting junior doctors pressed their demands for “justice and security” in the backdrop of the alleged brutal rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata last week, official sources said.
Normal life was affected partially in many towns and districts as the plying of private buses was thin, and commuters stayed away in view of separate shutdown calls given by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Socialist Unity Centre of India to demand the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Defying the state government’s blanket ban on the strike, the SUCI went ahead with its 12-hour shutdown across the state from at 6 am on Friday. Reports said that a scuffle broke out in Hazra between police and protesting SUCI members, while similar clashes between police and SUCI protesters at various pickets were reported from other districts.
The BJP is protesting against vandalism at the site of a peaceful protest at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital at midnight on Wednesday.
Other Opposition parties, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress, alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress was behind the rampage at the hospital.
The Opposition parties alleged an attempt to tamper with the forensic evidence of the murder. Kolkata Police have so far arrested 19 suspects till last night in the vandalism cases.
Banerjee on Thursday claimed that that “Bam and Ram”, the CPI(M) and BJP, were behind vandalism at hospital.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Friday called for a nationwide withdrawal of doctors’ services for 24-hour to oppose the death of a trainee doctor at RG Kar hospital and violence at the protest site.
“All essential services will be maintained. Casualties will be handled. Routine OPDs will not function, and elective surgeries will not be conducted. The withdrawal is across all the sectors, wherever modern
medicine doctors are providing service. IMA requires the sympathy of the nation with the just cause of its doctors,” read an IMA release.
Meanwhile, a report said that the victim’s family turned down a compensation announced by the government after the brutal crime and demanded justice for her.
“I express gratitude to everyone, regarding the protest that has been happening across the country and the world. I consider everyone who is standing with us, as my son and daughter.. .CBI has assured us that the accused will be arrested as soon as possible and awarded strict punishment based on whatever we have told them…I have turned down the compensation. It will hurt my daughter if I accept money as compensation for her death. I want justice,” the deceased doctor’s father told the media.
