‘Moral victory’: Mamata Banerjee removes police commissioner, top health officials hours before SC hearing

NEW DELHI: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accepted a five-point charter of demand placed by junior doctors protesting against the gruesome rape and murder of PG trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The doctors have been on cease work for 38 days since the doctor murder incident came to light on August 9, crippling state-run healthcare delivery. They hailed the CM’s announcement about removing Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal from the post and termed it as their “moral victory”.

Although the chief minister accepted their five-point demands, the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF) said they will continue to cease work till promises made by Mamata Banerjee 'materialise’.

“We will announce the name of the new police commissioner after 4 pm on Tuesday after the scheduled hearing in Supreme Court gets over,” Mamata Banerjee said at the stroke of midnight after concluding her meeting with the agitating junior doctors at her Kalighat residence, barely hours ahead of the scheduled Supreme Court hearing on the RG Kar hospital matter, the PTI reported.

The Supreme Court will hear the Kolkata doctor rape-murder case today. It had on September 9 directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to provide a fresh status report on its investigation by September 17. The three-judge bench, led by CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra also urged the doctors to resume work from September 10; however, the junior doctors did not comply.

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Mamata Banerjee's assurances

On Monday, the West Bengal chief secretary Manoj Pant extended a fifth and final invitation to the agitating doctors for talks with the chief minister. In the meeting, she announced the government decision to transfer a section of Kolkata police and the state health department top brass, including CP Vineet Goyal, from their respective positions.

She also announced the removal of the Director of Medical Education (DME) and the Director of Health Services (DHS) besides the Deputy Commissioner (North Division) who allegedly offered money to the parents of the RG Kar victim.

The state government also announced to allocate Rs 100 crore for infrastructure development in hospitals such as CCTV, wash room, which will be formalized in close consultation with the medical fraternity

To ensure safety and security in the hospital, a special task force headed by the chief secretary will be formed, having as members the home secretary, DGP, CP Kolkata and representatives of junior doctors, the minutes stated.

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Early morning celebrations with protestors playing drums and blowing conch shells were witnessed at the Swasthya Bhawan agitation site. Earlier on Monday, talks between the state government and the agitating junior doctors began at around 6.50 pm after four unsuccessful previous bids to initiate a dialogue to resolve the deadlock.

The meeting lasted for about two hours. It took another three hours to complete the process of finalizing the minutes of the meeting in the presence of the state chief secretary. The last meeting was cancelled after the state government refused the demand of junior doctors’ for live-streaming.