The meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the junior doctors protesting the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder case saw the doctors' delegation request that the meeting be live-streamed.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressed the junior doctors who were gathered at the entrance of her residence, stating, "You all have been standing in the rain for 2 hours, I am waiting for you all. There is a case going on in the Supreme Court, so we cannot do live streaming. I assure you that whatever recording will be done, it will be given to you. Accept my request and join the meeting. If you people do not want to come to the meeting, then go inside and have tea. We will prepare the minutes of the meeting and give it to you. The recording will be given later. If you people did not want to attend the meeting, then why did you come? Why are you insulting like this? This is not the first time. I have said earlier also that the recording cannot be given today. It is not possible to accept all your demands."
The meeting between Banerjee and the agitating junior doctors who are protesting over the RG Kar incident did not take place at the scheduled time as the medics remained adamant on live-streaming of the talks. “I would request you all to come inside and attend the meeting. As the matter is before the court, we cannot allow live streaming. I will video-record the meeting and will provide you with a copy only after permission from the Supreme Court,” she said, while appealing to students to come inside and not to get drenched in rain.
“Today, you said that you want a meeting, so I have been waiting. Why are you people insulting me like this? Please don’t insult me like this. Earlier on the three occasions, I have been waiting but you people didn’t come,” she said.
Dr Arnab Mukherjee, a junior doctor who was part of the delegation that went to meet CM Mamata Banerjee, said, "We requested for live streaming of this meeting. The Chief Secretary said live streaming is not possible as it is CM's residence. We told the Chief Secretary that we want live streaming so that transparency is maintained. We also said please consider our videographer so that he can record the meeting. But CM's security was shooting the video and they said it is for security reasons. We want live streaming so that proper transparency of this discussion and meeting is maintained and other junior doctors present at the protest site can also know what happened in this meeting. That's why we are waiting in front of the main gate of CM residence as we want live streaming of this meeting."
Dr Aqeeb who was part of the delegation that went to meet CM Mamata Banerjee, said to news agency ANI, "We were ready for minutes after CM appealed. We were discussing and when we were about to go (for the meeting), we were told that the time was up, and the CM cannot meet us.We will wait for the next communication with the CM. Till then we will continue protesting."
This comes after Mamata Banerjee visited the junior doctors' protest site in front of Swasthya Bhaban, where she assured the doctors that she would address their demands and make efforts to fulfil them. Addressing the protesting doctors, the West Bengal Chief Minister said that she was spending sleepless nights as the doctors were agitating on the road amid rains.
She further urged the protesting doctors to return to work and said, "I request you to return to work. All the work related to the development, infrastructure, and security of the hospital has been started and will be done further."
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