Junior doctors in Kolkata protesting the brutal rape and murder of a colleague called off their hunger strike on Monday after a two-hour meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat, Nabanna.
“Today, at the meeting with the Chief Minister, we had the opportunity to discuss many issues, and she also shared various points with us. We have been assured of some directives, which she said we would receive by 3 p.m. tomorrow,” junior doctor Sayantani Ghosh Hazra told ANI after the meeting.
Seventeen junior doctors attended the meeting with the chief minister, and it was streamed live from the secretariat.
After the junior doctors ended their indefinite hunger strike, they were taken to the hospital. Many had to be hospitalized after their health deteriorated during the hunger strike.
Protests erupted across the country after the trainee doctor’s body was found at the city’s R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug. 9.
The incident has sparked a political row between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the state government, with the BJP demanding the resignation of CM Banerjee.
Doctors across the country have expressed solidarity with the junior doctors. On October 15, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) announced that the IMA Junior Doctors Network nationwide would fast in support of the West Bengal Junior Doctors Front.