Trinamool leader's statement on protesting doctors creates uproar

Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS) A controversial comment by the Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh about the junior doctors protesting against the ghastly rape and murder of their colleague at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata has created an uproar among the members of the medical fraternity in West Bengal.

Ghosh had advised his party workers to prepare a list of junior doctors posted in various districts. “Many junior doctors attached to state-run medical colleges in the districts are not attending their scheduled duty hours. They attend the duties there for some hours and then come to Kolkata to do parallel private practices. Prepare the list of these doctors so that it can be sent to the state government for proper administrative action against them as per law,” Ghosh said.

The Trinamool leader had also claimed that the list of such junior doctors, who are doing parallel private practices, will be sent to the state government so that disciplinary action as per existing legal provisions can be taken against them

However, West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of the junior doctors spearheading the movement on this rape and murder issue, has described Ghosh’s comments as a ploy to divert public attention from the ongoing protest movements with the spontaneous public support.

“We have been insisting on infrastructure development at state-run medical colleges and hospitals in Kolkata for some time. One such demand is the immediate introduction of the biometric attendance marking system at all state-run medical colleges and hospitals. That will reveal who is attending regularly and who is not. Let the administration take action against the defaulters then,” argued a WBJDF representative.

Another protesting junior doctor said that such comments by Ghosh in the current situation were an attempt to instigate the public against the protesters and is actually another form of “threat- culture” that has prevailed in the medical colleges and hospitals in the state for so long.

“Such attempts to divert attention from our movement in support of our justified demands will never work out,” he added.

According to Manas Gumta, former general secretary of the Association of Health Service Doctors, Ghosh is unnecessarily poking his nose in a thoroughly administrative affair despite not being a part of the administration. “He is mistaken if he thinks that we will be scared,” said Gumta