R.G. Kar case: Protesting junior doctors meeting yet to decide on ‘cease-work’

Agitating junior doctors in West Bengal held a meeting on Tuesday evening (17 September) to decide on their ongoing ‘cease-work’ protest, demanding justice for the woman medic who was raped and murdered at R.G. Kar hospital last month.

The governing body meeting of the medics, which started around 6:30 p.m., is still underway, one of the protesting doctors said.

"We are holding this meeting to decide on whether to continue with our 'cease work', as some of our demands have been fulfilled by the state government," he told PTI.

The decision also depends on the advice of their lawyer Indira Jaising, the medic said.

Meanwhile, senior IPS officer Manoj Kumar Verma has been appointed the new Kolkata Police commissioner on Tuesday, replacing Vineet Goyal the day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with the agitating doctors and agreed to their demands in a bid to resolve the more than month-long impasse over the R.G. Kar hospital incident.

Director of health services Debashis Halder, director of medical education Kaustav Nayak and deputy commissioner of Kolkata Police's North Division Abhishek Gupta have also been removed, as promised by Banerjee during the meeting.

The doctors have been on ‘cease-work’ since 9 August, when the body of a woman doctor with injuries was recovered in the seminar hall of the state-run hospital.

They have also been protesting outside the state health department headquarters, Swasthya Bhavan, in the Salt Lake area.