The doctors' demands and CM Mamata Banerjee's response to the points highlighted
Telegraph | 20 October 2024
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday asked the junior doctors to spell out their demands over the phone and said she would respond with the measures taken by the government.
Metro lists the demands that the junior doctors mentioned and what Mamata said based on videos that were publicly available.
Before Mamata’s voice became audible, chief secretary Manoj Pant and home secretary Nandini Chakravorty were seen talking with the junior doctors, individually and also in groups.
The officials were also seen handing a phone to a group of junior doctors who were speaking while looking at the screen of the phone. It was not clear who they were speaking with and what transpired in those moments.
Later, Pant and Chakravorty put Mamata on a phone which was on loudspeaker. The deputy commissioner of police, central, Indira Mukherjee, held a microphone near the phone that made the chief minister’s voice audible to all.
Demand: Elections in medical colleges
Mamata’s response: I want elections to be held simultaneously in colleges, universities and medical colleges. Give me 3-4 months. I could have said six months but I am not saying that. The situation has to be normalised. Earlier it was different, there used to be a three-year degree course. Now, there are semester exams. You have your exams in November and January. Everything has to be taken into consideration. I am making preparations for the procedures.
Later in the evening, in an email to the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, chief secretary Pant wrote that elections to student councils can be held in all medical colleges and other institutions by March 2025.
Demand: Centralised referral system
Mamata’s response: A pilot project has already started.
Demand: Digital bed vacancy update
Mamata’s response:
This is already in process. Everything cannot be introduced at the same time. We are already working on this.
Demand: Recruitment of permanent police personnel to guard hospitals. Hospital security should not be handled by civic volunteers.
Mamata’s response: We have already started a security audit of the hospitals. Former director general of police Surajit Kar Purkayastha has been given responsibility of this audit. We have formed a team with him. We have also formed teams to conduct security audits in the districts.
(Amrita Bhattacharya, a junior doctor, said over the phone that the government was supposed to send them an SOP about this. Mamata said an SOP would be sent to the junior doctors.)
Recruitment of police personnel is on hold. Someone went to the high court about OBC reservation. The matter is now pending in the Supreme Court. We want to recruit 6,000 police personnel but cannot go ahead till the matter is resolved in the Supreme Court.
Demand: The vacancies in the ranks of doctors and nurses must be filled immediately.
Mamata’s response: The chief minister did not respond as Amrita Bhattacharya raised this demand.
Demand: Those involved in creating a culture of threat must be punished. A state-level inquiry committee has to be formed.
Mamata’s response: We will do this.
One demand that Mamata did not accept
Demand: Removal of N.S. Nigam from the post of health secretary
Mamata’s response: This cannot be done. Will you remove everyone from one family? Will you decide which officer of the government will go and who will not? If there is a specific complaint, we will probe it. A probe is going on. Have trust in the probe. Those of you who are in this movement, do you know many who were in the movement also worked in nursing homes using Swasthya Sathi cards? I have a list of those who have done this. You cannot deny your responsibility.