Protesting doctors write to President Murmu, PM over RG Kar impasse

Kolkata: Protesting junior doctors in West Bengal have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Droupadi Murmu, pleading with them to intervene in the RG Kar hospital standoff. Additionally, copies of the four-page letter were sent to Union Health Minister J P Nadda and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar by the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front.

A post-graduate trainee was raped and murdered in state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Junior doctors have been on a 'cease work' since then.

"We humbly place the issues before your esteemed excellency, as the head of state, so that our unfortunate colleague who has been the victim of the most despicable crime shall receive justice, and so that we, the healthcare professionals under the West Bengal Health Department, may be able to discharge our duties to the public without fear and apprehension.

"Your intervention in these trying times will act as a beacon of light to us all, showing us the way ahead out of the darkness that surrounds us," they wrote.

One of the agitating doctors, Aniket Mahato, told PTI that the letter was drafted earlier this month and sent on Thursday night.

“In the light of these extremely unfortunate events, the head of the institute in question, along with the state police and certain state government officials had allegedly mishandled the entire forensic and legal proceedings with little regard for either the sanctity of the crime scene that was mobbed by several people of infamous repute within the West Bengal medical fraternity, or for the victim's parents…” the letter said.

In view of these circumstances, the sense of “deep mistrust and fear that we feel towards the authorities remain unallayed so far, and we desperately implore that these noxious elements within the health system be weeded out to assure us of a truly safe workplace”, it said.

“In this turbid atmosphere of fear, distrust and hopelessness”, the junior doctors in West Bengal have been “forced” to avoid working within the hospital premises and instead, have taken alternative modes to discharge the duty of providing health care services to citizens, it added.

With PTI inputs