Doctors Strike: We accept all demands, Says Mamta Banerjee
KOLKATA/ NEW DELHI : We’ve accepted all their demands.“We have already adhered to all legitimate demands and are open to any other additional demands that may be there. We want an amicable solution to this problem,” Banerjee said. She said the administration is showing patience in the situation.
“We have accepted all the demands of the doctors and have taken action. The police had intervened immediately and stopped the situation from spiralling out of control,” the TMC chief said.
Ms Banerjee, addressing the media this evening, said, “We are not going to take any strict action against the doctors”. Meanwhile, the central government has asked for a report from the state, sources said on Saturday. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan also wrote to all Chief Ministers,
She said the doctors’ agitation is causing inconvenience to the patients across the state. “People are dying. I went to SSKM to see whether the Emergency Unit was operational. I was humiliated by the doctors, they misbehaved. Yet, I asked police to not take any action against them,” Banerjee claimed.
We don’t want to invoke Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Act in the state, says Ms Banerjee She says- I do not want to invoke Essential Services Maintenance (ESMA) Act in the state. I want the junior doctors to resume work as we have accepted all their demands, reports news agency.
Banerjee says, we never arrested a single person. We will not take any police action. Health services cannot continue like this. I am not going to take any stringent action. Let good sense prevail, reports news agency
“I wanted to speak to the agitating doctors the very next day. They refused to speak to me. I was humiliated but never spoke of this before,” Banerjee said.She also said the government is taking necessary steps to prevents incidents of violence against the doctors.
“I wanted to speak to the agitating doctors the very next day. They refused to speak to me. I was humiliated but never spoke of this before,” Banerjee said.She also said the government is taking necessary steps to prevents incidents of violence against the doctors.
Banerjee cited instances of steps taken against doctors in similar situation by other states, adding that the West Bengal government had not taken any tough action against them as she does not want to hamper their careers.
Between Thursday and Saturday afternoon, more than 500 government-employed doctors tendered resignations in an unprecedented show of solidarity with their striking junior colleagues. However, Banerjee said the resignations hold no value as per law.
“I have consulted my health secretary and he said action can be taken if there are individual resignations. But there is no law to deal with mass resignations,” she said.
The medical fraternity in West Bengal has been at loggerheads with the government after two junior doctors were assaulted by the kin of a patient who died at the NRS Hospital over alleged negligence. One of them, Dr Paribaha Mukhopadhyay, was critically injured and has been undergoing treatment at Kolkata’s Institute of Neurosciences. He is now said to be in a stable condition.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has written to Banerjee advising her to take immediate steps to provide security to medicos and find out a solution to the impasse rising out of junior doctors’ agitation across the state.
Banerjee later said that she has spoken to the governor and appraised him about the steps taken by the state government to resolve the impasse in hospitals.
Protesting doctors turned down an invite for a closed-door meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat on Saturday and instead asked her to visit the NRS Medical College and Hospital to hold talks and resolve the impasse.
A delegation of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) met Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan over the ongoing protests. The country’s leading doctors’ body launched a four-day nationwide protest on Friday and called a strike on Monday.
In Delhi, doctors at 15 hospitals held protests on Saturday, the Federation Of Resident Doctors Association said. The AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Bengal government to end the stalemate.
“I have consulted my health secretary and he said action can be taken if there are individual resignations. But there is no law to deal with mass resignations,” she said.
The medical fraternity in West Bengal has been at loggerheads with the government after two junior doctors were assaulted by the kin of a patient who died at the NRS Hospital over alleged negligence. One of them, Dr Paribaha Mukhopadhyay, was critically injured and has been undergoing treatment at Kolkata’s Institute of Neurosciences. He is now said to be in a stable condition.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has written to Banerjee advising her to take immediate steps to provide security to medicos and find out a solution to the impasse rising out of junior doctors’ agitation across the state.
Banerjee later said that she has spoken to the governor and appraised him about the steps taken by the state government to resolve the impasse in hospitals.
Protesting doctors turned down an invite for a closed-door meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat on Saturday and instead asked her to visit the NRS Medical College and Hospital to hold talks and resolve the impasse.
A delegation of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) met Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan over the ongoing protests. The country’s leading doctors’ body launched a four-day nationwide protest on Friday and called a strike on Monday.
In Delhi, doctors at 15 hospitals held protests on Saturday, the Federation Of Resident Doctors Association said. The AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the Bengal government to end the stalemate.
More than 300 doctors across various state-run medical college and hospitals in West Bengal have resigned and health services have been affected by protests in several states.(With Agency Inputs ).
