RG Kar hospital incident: Doctors seek transparent talks with state govt

Calling for a transparent discussion with MoS Health (West Bengal) Chandrima Bhattacharya over the RG Kar medical hospital incident amid the continuous protest by the doctors in Haryana, Dr Arnab Mukhopadhya on Thursday said we have all the discussion channels open, but our prerequisite conditions aren't unfair.

"We have seen that a public meeting was organised by the state government. MoS Health (West Bengal) Chandrima Bhattacharya was there, he said certain things including - that he wanted an open heart discussion with us. We are also waiting for that. It would be better and we have demanded that the discussion be live telecasted to maintain transparency. He said that he is disheartened, I want to say that he is disheartened while sitting in the AC room while we are here. We have all the discussion channels open, but our prerequisite conditions aren't unfair... We will continue our protest," Dr Arnab Mukhopadhya said told ANI.Meanwhile, Junior doctors continued their protest at the Swasthya Bhawan salt lake area of West Bengal.Earlier on Wednesday, the West Bengal Medical Council in Kolkata held a rally, demanding justice in the RG Kar rape-murder case.The rally of doctors held banners stating, "In demand of punishment for all rapist-murderers and their accomplices in the Abhaya rape and murder case."The long procession showed doctors raising slogans and holding banners and taking to the streets to voice their demand for justice in the gruesome case.

Earlier, agitating doctors of the RK Kar Hospital clarified about their refusal to accept West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's invitation for talks at the state secretariat to resolve the impasse over their refusal to return to work.

Speaking to ANI, Dr Aqeeb said, "The mail that we received yesterday was from the principal secretary and it was written that there is a meeting with senior government officials, stating it to be a closed-door meeting. We refused it because we were against the closed-door meeting.""Like WB Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the Chief Minister was waiting for us, nothing of this sort was mentioned in the mail. We then sent a mail to the CM office in which we mentioned our five demands," he said.The second-year postgraduate medical student was raped and murdered inside the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College on August 9.