R G Kar Hospital turns into battlefield as police, agitators clash
The Statesman | 11 August 2024
The main entrance of the state-run R G Kar Medical College Hospital turned into a battlefield between police and protesters mainly belonging to different Left-affiliated students’ organizations on Saturday evening when they clashed with each other.
The trouble started after the protesters, mainly students of the Medical College Hospital, Jadavpur University and some other teaching hospitals were prevented from entering into the R G Kar Medical College by a large police contingent deployed at the entrance along the hospital.
Students, backed by SFI, SUCI-affiliated AIDSO and reportedly other Naxalite factions reached the R G Kar Hospital, around 4 pm to take part in the ongoing cease-work organized by postgraduate trainee (PGT) doctors and interns of the hospital, demanding safety and security for doctors inside the hospital premises after the incident on Friday.
Showing solidarity with the agitating junior doctors and interns at R G Kar Hospital, the Left-backed students tried to enter the spot in front of the nine-storey emergency building, housing the chest medicine department in its third floor.
The PGTs and interns, who were agitating in front of the emergency building at R G Kar Hospital also prevented the Left-backed students of other medical colleges and universities from entering into the hospital. The main gate was locked during the trouble.
The Left-backed students forcefully tried to reach the spot of agitation, breaking the guard rails installed in front of the gate by police. They had a scuffle with the police, led by a deputy commissioner.
Police geared up to take action and beat up several agitators and took them to the prison van. Traffic movement in front of the R G Kar Road was restricted for more than one-and-a-half hours. The situation was brought under control after police released the agitators, who were taken inside the prison van.
Several agitating PGTs and interns of R G Kar Hospital said, “We won’t allow any outsiders who came here to do politics. They can show solidarity with the protest programme from outside, not inside.”
“On the other hand, PGTs and interns of R G Kar Hospital are getting support of Trinamul Congress and desperate to prevent us from entering the hospital,” the Left agitators alleged.
CPM state secretary Md Salim demanded a judicial inquiry to probe the incident while addressing a protest rally brought out by the party in the nearby Shyambazar area.
PGTs and interns of many other government-run medical college hospitals like NRS Medical College Hospital, MCH, SSKM, Calcutta National Medical College Hospital, Chittaranjan Sevasadan, Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital, Burdwan Medical College Hospital, Midnapore Medical College Hospital, College of Medicine and Sagar Dutta State General Hospital stopped work in outdoor patients department (OPD) clinics, except emergency wards for an indefinite period to protest against murder of the doctor at R G Kar Hospital.
Normal healthcare services were disrupted throughout the day today owing to cease-work programmes in government hospitals.
The incident has also prompted doctors outside West Bengal to show their solidarity with their professional colleagues in Bengal.
Resident Doctors’ Association of All India Institute Medical Science in Delhi and Chandigarh has demanded exemplary punishment to those who are involved in the case.