Kolkata protesting doctors wait in rain outside Mamata’s residence as impasse continues over live streaming

Kolkata doctor rape case: Thirty protesting doctors reached West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Kalighat residence in Kolkata on Saturday evening. They waited in rain for over an hour as impasse continued over live streaming.

The protesting doctors had brought their own videographer to record the meeting, but they were not allowed to take the two videograpghers inside Mamata Banerjee's residence.

The development comes mere hours after CM Mamata Banerjee paid a surprise visit to the protest site and urged the doctors to resume work. The agitating medicos had subsequently sent a mail to the state government expressing their wish to hold talks.

It remains undecided whether the protesting doctors will return to their protest site in Salt Lake if the West Bengal Chief Minister does not allow live streaming or videography.

The protesting doctors claimed they had requested Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to hold the meeting at their protest site near Swasthya Bhawan when she visited earlier in the day. However, the Bengal CM responded that she had come to see them not in her official capacity, but as their ‘didi’ (elder sister).

The delegation comprising around 30 medics arrived by bus around 45 minutes past the scheduled time for the meeting. All the doctors were allowed into the CMs residence — despite repeated insistence that only 15 individuals were being invited to attend the meeting.

What are the protesting doctors' demands?
The protesting medics have demanded accountability and punishment for those behind the rape-murder and "destruction" of evidence. They have sought strict action against the former medical college principal Sandip Ghosh and the resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam. The junior doctors have also called for improved security for healthcare workers and the eradication of the "threat culture" in government healthcare institutions.

"We are willing to hold a meeting with the chief minister anywhere and anytime to resolve the impasse. We welcome her visit to us this afternoon. This is a very positive move. We have sent a mail to the state government," one of the agitating doctors told PTI in the afternoon.

Chief Secretary Manoj Pant had issued a fresh invite to the protestors on Saturday evening — scheduling a meeting at the CM's residence with 15 representatives of the junior doctors.

Meanwhile the parents of the victim have also called for Banerjee to accept the protesters' demands. 

“We want the CM to accept the 5-point demands of junior doctors and find a solution. I see that the administration, police administration, health department all are at fault. The junior doctors are suffering a lot, we want a solution as soon as possible by talking to them and accepting their demands,” the victim's mother told ANI.

(With inputs from agencies)