Rally barred from Swasthya Bhavan: Doctors told about ban on assembly
Telegraph | 19 November 2024
The Bidhannagar police on Monday prevented a doctors’ rally from entering the Swasthya Bhavan premises citing an order prohibiting the assembly of five or more people inside and outside the headquarters of the state health department.
Swasthya Bhavan, in Salt Lake Sector V, has been the destination of many rallies since the junior doctors began their protests following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
A senior officer of Bidhannagar City Police told Metro the prohibitory order has been in place for many years. The tenure of the order has been extended like it was done on many occasions before.
The November 16 order issued by the commissioner of Bidhannagar police said protests “almost in all the days of the week” were “causing a great inconvenience to the normal office work of the offices located at Swasthya Bhavan, Salt Lake”.
The order was issued under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which gives the “power to issue order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger”.
Protesting junior doctors had squatted on the road outside Swasthya Bhavan from September 10 to 21. The police had blocked a section of the road leading to Swasthya Bhavan from the Techno India University intersection during the sit-in.
After the sit-in, multiple rallies from various places culminated at the health department headquarters.
Saturday’s order mentioned that an assembly of five or more people would not be allowed on both flanks of the road outside Swasthya Bhavan as well as on the premises of the health hub.
Swasthya Bhavan houses the offices of state health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam, whose resignation was one of the demands of the junior doctors, and the minister of state for health, Chandrima Bhattacharya, among others.
Tamonas Chaudhuri, a member of the Joint Platform of Doctors, whose rally was stopped from entering Swasthya Bhavan on Monday, said they had plans to take the rally inside the premises but were not allowed by the police.
“The police informed us about the prohibitory order. We were not aware of it,” he said. “A team went inside to submit a memorandum (on the ‘threat culture’ prevalent at government hospitals).”
Badana Varun Chandra Sekhar, joint commissioner, headquarters, Bidhannagar City Police, said: “The prohibitory order has been there for years. It was only renewed for a fixed tenure.”
Saturday’s order said the ban on assembly had been extended till January 15, 2025.