'I am ready to resign': Mamata Banerjee offers to quit as chief minister as protests over RG Kar continue

Mamata Banerjee on Thursday offered to step down as chief minister, saying she is not concerned about the post. "I am ready to resign from the Chief Minister of West Bengal. I am not concerned about the post. I want justice, I am only concerned about justice getting served," she said in a press briefing after protesting doctors did not turn for a scheduled meeting with her. 

The chief minister's resignation offer comes soon after doctors protesting over the brutal rape and murder incident at RG Kar Medical College refused to meet her as the state government did not agree to live telecast the entire meeting. The government was ready to record the meeting, but doctors insisted on live streaming. 

The chief minister said she tried her best to sit with the junior doctors. "I waited 3 days for them. They should have come and settle their problem. Even when they didn't accept the verdict of the Supreme Court, I waited 3 days with my highest officials, including the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, DG and my MoS."

"I am sorry. I apologize to the people of this country and the world who are supporting them (doctors), please give your support. I don't have any problem. We want justice for the common people. We want justice for the treatment of common people. We want that as per Supreme Court's instruction they must join their duty," she said, adding that though three days passed after the top court's order, but the state is not taking any disciplinary action "because sometimes we have to tolerate, it is our duty to tolerate".

Banerjee said she waited for two hours for the meeting but got no response from the protesting doctors, who had reached the state secretariat, Nabanna. West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said that the state did its best to have the meeting.

"We have made recording arrangements so that the entire proceedings are well documented. There should be trust between the two parties. We want to listen to them. There should not be any difference or opinion in it, there is no conflict situation. Both of us are working with the same objective. So I don't understand why they are feeling that unless there is live streaming we will not go to the meeting. We want to document everything and discuss it with them properly," he said.