Doctors continue protest at CNMCH against new principal
The Statesman | 15 August 2024
Junior doctors, interns and postgraduate trainees (PGTs) of the state-run Calcutta National Medical College Hospital (CNMCH) continued to protest even on Tuesday against the controversial appointment of Prof Sandip Ghosh as their college principal.
The agitating students-junior doctors at the CNMCH have made it clear today that they did not want the “garbage” of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, the reference to the ex-principal.
Sensing the arrival of Prof Ghosh to take charge of the principal at CNMCH, the agitating doctors and students on Monday evening locked the office of the principal and entrance of the hospital so that he can’t enter there.
Under the pressure of the ongoing protest of junior doctors, interns and PGTs at the R G Kar Medical College Hospital and other teaching hospitals in the state, the health department on Monday afternoon transferred Prof Ghosh to the CNMCH, hours before he tendered resignation as principal of R G Kar Medical college Hospital.
But his appointment as principal of the CNMCH was challenged in the high court on Tuesday.
The health department, this afternoon again brought back Prof (Dr) Ajoy Roy at CNMCH, whom Prof Ghosh had replaced on Monday afternoon.
The junior doctors have been protesting at the gates of the CNMCH since Monday when the state health department issued a notification appointing Mr Ghosh as the principal of the teaching hospital, where he had earlier served as the medical-superintendent and vice-principal (MSVP).
On Tuesday, Trinamul leaders Swarnakamal Saha and Javed Ahmed Khan, emissaries of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, had to return from the hospital empty-handed after the protestors refused to budge from their stand.
“This is our second home. We are away from home. We don’t want a guardian like him. How can you allow such a person here?” a female junior doctor was heard asking the two Trinamul leaders, who were forced to return after more than an hour-long sloganeering of “go-back”.
About 500 students, interns and doctors held a meeting on Monday night and decided to be on vigil against Prof Ghosh’s arrival.
A 31-year-old postgraduate trainee from the chest department at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital was found murdered with brutal injuries across her body on Friday night.
Since then the Calcutta Police’s special investigation team has arrested a civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, while many others, including interns and trainees who were at the ward on the night of the brutal attack.