Junior doctors in West Bengal protesting the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital said on Wednesday night that talks with senior state officials failed to break the deadlock and that it was “the most disappointing meeting so far”.

After the two-hour meeting, the doctors alleged they received nothing concrete from the state except “verbal assurances” since the government refused to issue written directives on their demands to ensure a “thorough clean-up” of the state healthcare system and step up their safety and security within medical college campuses.

While some 20 representatives from medical colleges across the state attended the meeting at Swasthya Bhawan, the state was represented by Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, Home Secretary Nandi Mukherjee, and DGP Rajeev Kumar, among others.

The meeting took place amid an escalation in the ongoing protests after a scuffle broke out between a group of junior doctors and police near a Durga Puja pandal in south Kolkata on Wednesday night.

Earlier in the day, as the hunger strike by a group of seven junior doctors at Esplanade demanding safety and security at the workplace entered the fifth day, their colleagues initiated a symbolic procession around puja pandals.

Even as the police denied them permission, the junior doctors went ahead with their planned protest at Tridhara Mandap in south Kolkata, leading to a confrontation with the cops. The medics alleged that several of their colleagues were detained by the police and marched towards Lalbazar, the headquarters of Kolkata Police, but were stopped.

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