On Wednesday, the doctors who are protesting for the RG Kar rape and murder case agreed to meet with the government in order to resolve the standoff over their return to work. A delegation of ten to fifteen doctors has been invited by the government of Mamata Banerjee to meet at the state secretariat today at six o’clock.
The doctors kept going on their protests on September 10, even after the Supreme Court ordered them to report back to work by that evening. The state government had written to the doctors on Tuesday, requesting a meeting. Although the doctors claimed to have received an email from the government, they claimed that the sender was the Health Secretary, whose dismissal they are demanding.
On Wednesday morning, doctors sent an email to the Chief Minister’s Office confirming that they had agreed to meet. As per India Today, one of the protesting doctors quoted, “In the email that was sent to us, there was no mention of the presence of the Chief Minister. We emailed the Chief Minister today at 3.50 am to clear the confusion. We had some demands. We mentioned that demand in that email. But we have not received any reply to that email yet.”
The doctors received a follow-up email later that day from the Chief Secretary of Bengal, inviting them to attend a meeting at the state office at 6 p.m. Additionally, the government reminded them of the Supreme Court order directing them to report back to work by 5 p.m. yesterday.
The Supreme Court ordered the protesting resident doctors to return to work by Tuesday at 5 p.m., and it stated that they will not face any negative consequences for doing so. The order was issued on Monday. The West Bengal administration promised the court that no action would be taken against the doctors who were protesting upon their return to work, including punitive transfers. Based on this assurance, the court granted the direction.