Face of Nation :West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has issued a four-hour ultimatum to West Bengal’s doctors who have been protesting against an attack on their colleague, affecting services at government hospitals across the state.
Banerjee, who visited the state-run SSKM Hospital on Thursday, asked the protesting doctors to return to work or vacate the hostels. She added that those demonstrating were not doctors but outsiders who wanted to create trouble in the state
They are outsiders. The government will not support them in any way. I condemn doctors who have gone on strike. Policemen die in line of duty but the police don’t go on a strike,” she said.
Amid slogans of ‘we want justice’, Banerjee said, “You have to give service to the people. You cannot be a doctor without providing service to the people. Similarly, police cannot call for a strike. It is their duty. It is unfortunate that the BJP and CPI(M) are doing politics here. They are playing Hindu-Muslim card here. Health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya met junior doctors on Wednesday and requested them to speak to me. I was holding the call but they just refused to talk to me over phone.”
The state-wide protest was triggered after Pariboho Mukherjee, a junior doctor at the NRS Medical College and Hospital, was beaten up by the family members of a patient who alleged that he died because of negligence. The doctor suffered a head injury and is in critical care at a private hospital.
