20km & 8 hour rally for justice, doctors and others walk from Sodepur to Esplanade
Telegraph | 20 October 2024
Hundreds of people walked from Sodepur, on the northern fringes of Calcutta, to Esplanade on Saturday seeking “justice” for the postgraduate trainee doctor who was raped and murdered at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
Sodepur, where the slain doctor lived, and Esplanade, where protesting junior doctors are on a fast till death, are around 20km apart.
The rally was called by the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front.
Many non-medical persons were also part of the rally. The parents of the victim accompanied the rallyists for a short distance.
From HB Town in Sodepur, the participants marched towards the Sodepur Traffic More and then to Sagore Dutta hospital. From the hospital, they headed towards the Dunlop crossing and the Sinthee intersection.
From there, they marched to the Shyambazar five-point crossing before heading towards College Square on their way to Esplanade.
The rally started around 2.30pm and it reached Esplanade around 10.30pm.
“We started from Sodepur because the victim lived there. There is a bid to create a perception that common people have drifted away from the protest. This rally was called to dispel that notion,” said Mrinmoy Basak, a postgraduate trainee at National Medical College and Hospital.
Sayan Das, who has recently completed his MBBS from the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital, said: “Sodepur and Esplanade are linked by the demand for justice. This rally will put more pressure on the administration. Our demands are not only for doctors. They are for the common citizenry, too.”
The rallyists carried banners, posters and a miniature blindfolded Lady Justice. They shouted slogans and sang songs of protest as they marched.
On Friday, supporters of football clubs, including East Bengal, Mohammedan Sporting and Mohun Bagan, had vowed to form human chains from the Ultadanga intersection to the Ruby crossing on EM Bypass from 5pm to 7pm on Saturday. They had said they would be joined by medical professionals outside the Salt Lake Stadium.
On Saturday, around 35 people, mostly senior doctors, formed a human chain in front of the stadium’s VIP Gate around 7pm. The group shouted slogans like “We want justice” and “Justice for RG Kar”.
Similar but smaller chains were formed near the Ruby intersection and the Hyatt crossing on the Bypass. But the chains were not contiguous from Ultadanga to the Ruby crossing, as was planned.