No live telecast, 15-member delegation: Bengal govt to doctors for 5pm meet
Following the tragic death of a junior doctor, the West Bengal government has extended another invitation to the protesting doctors for a meeting. While agreeing to the doctors' demand for the Chief Minister's presence, the government has rejected their request for a live webcast.
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FollowThe West Bengal government on Thursday issued a fresh invite to agitating doctors for talks at 5 pm to end the month-long stand-off in the wake of the rape and murder of the 31-year-old trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. The doctors demanded that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attend the conference, and the administration obliged, although it refused their demand for a live webcast of the discussions.
The meeting will be held in the conference hall at Nabanna. The letter, written by Bengal's Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, also restricted the delegation's strength to not more than 15 people. Pant also mentioned that the meeting can be recorded to "maintain transparency".
The state government issued a new invitation one day after turning down the protesting physicians' requests for a meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to break the impasse.
"A live webcast of the meeting is not permitted. To preserve openness, the same can be documented. This would fulfil the objective that you had in mind and preserve the confidentiality of the conversations by making sure that every conversation is properly recorded," the Chief Secretary's letter stated.
In the last two days, the physicians have received three communications from the Bengali government; the protestors have rejected the previous two and imposed strict requirements on the meeting. The state administration has communicated with the protesting physicians, but they have not responded yet.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hit out at the government's refusal to live telecast the meeting, expressing scepticism over its offer to record the meeting for “transparency”.
The doctors have been staging a sit-in outside the West Bengal Health Department’s office in Salt Lake, demanding justice for their colleague, whose body was discovered with injuries on August 9 at RG Kar Medical College. Their agitation, which has paralysed healthcare services at state-run hospitals, is now in its 34th day.
