FEMA calls 2 day strike in Siliguri medical institutions over RG Kar case

The Federation of Medical Association (FEMA) has called a two-day pen-down strike in private and government medical colleges and hospitals in Siliguri over issues including the RG Kar rape-murder case.

Doctors are protesting against the rape and murder of a woman doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.

Earlier, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar urged BJP workers and people of West Bengal to join the doctors' protest in large numbers.

He said that the West Bengal government had promised to fulfil doctors' demands during the meeting with the Chief Minister but has rescinded on it, since.

"The West Bengal BJP extends its full support to the Junior Doctor's Front in their agitation against the Mamata Banerjee Govt. The demands made by protesting doctors, in the aftermath of the gruesome rape and murder of a lady doctor at RG Kar Medical College & Hospital, is legitimate, and must be fulfilled. West Bengal Govt had promised to meet doctors' demands during the meeting with the Chief Minister but have rescinded on it, since," Majumdar said in a press release.

He further appealed the BJP workers and people of West Bengal to join the doctors' protest.

"I encourage all BJP Karyakartas to join the doctors' protest in large numbers. I also urge the people of West Bengal to be a part of this movement and get heard. We have to protect our doctors and save Bengal from the dark forces, which are helming the affairs of the State at the moment," he added.

Meanwhile, the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) has also announced a nationwide boycott of elective medical services starting today in solidarity with their West Bengal colleagues as part of the doctors protest against rape and murder of a second year old trainee doctor at RG Kar medical college.

The protest follows over 65 days of demonstrations advocating for safer working conditions and highlights the West Bengal government's neglect of doctors currently on an indefinite hunger strike for the past week.

Around 50 senior doctors and faculty members of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata resigned in solidarity with their junior colleagues, who are on a hunger strike protesting the rape and murder of a trainee doctor on the institution's premises in August this year, the FAIMA said.

On August 9, a woman trainee doctor was found dead in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.