Kolkata horror: Junior doctors' strike to continue despite SC direction

Agitating junior doctors in West Bengal said they would continue their ‘cease work’ to demand justice for the RG Kar hospital medic who was raped and murdered, despite Supreme Court directions to resume duties by 5 pm on Tuesday.

Demanding the resignation of the state’s health secretary and director of health education (DHE), the protesting medics said that they would also take out a rally to ‘Swasthya Bhavan’ – the headquarters of the health department in Salt Lake – on Tuesday noon.

“Our demands are unfulfilled and justice is not meted out to the victim. We will continue our agitation as well as the ‘cease work’. We want the health secretary and DHE to resign. Tomorrow noon, we will hold a rally to the Swasthya Bhavan,” one of the protesting doctors told PTI on Monday evening after a meeting of their governing body here.

The body of the postgraduate trainee doctor was found with injury marks in a seminar room of state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. She was allegedly raped and killed while on duty. The incident has triggered nationwide outrage and protests.

The junior doctors have been observing ‘cease work’ at state-run hospitals for about a month now.

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the protesting medics to resume their duties by 5 pm on Tuesday to avoid adverse action by the state government.

The court passed the direction after the West Bengal government assured it that no action, including punitive transfers, would be taken against the protesting doctors if they resumed work.