'Waited for 2 hours...': Mamata Banerjee after no meeting with doctors over live telecast impasse

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she waited for two hours for a meeting with junior doctors protesting over the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital rape-murder case, but the latter did not turn up even though they were in the state secretariat, Nabanna.

The West Bengal government had invited junior doctors to come to Nabanna to attend a proposed meeting for the restoration of normalcy to ensure treatment and health services to the common people. The doctors reached the state secretariat, but demanded live telecast of their meeting. 

The chief minister said that there were plans of recording the meeting but the dialogue could take not place as doctors insisted for live telecast. 

West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said the state government tried its best to make the doctors understand. "We have explained to them what all arrangements have been made. We have made recording arrangements so that the entire proceedings are well documented. There should be trust between the two parties," he said while addressing reporters. 

"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."

A group of agitating junior doctors reached the state secretariat Nabanna to hold talks in the presence of Mamata Banerjee to resolve the deadlock over a rape and murder incident at RG Kar Hospital.

Escorted by a pilot police vehicle, the delegation reached the secretariat at around 5.25 pm, some 25 minutes past the scheduled time of commencement of the meeting. Sticking to their original demand, 30 medics went to Nabanna instead of 15 people as mandated by the state government.

The delegation was seen waiting till 5.45 pm outside Nabanna Sabhaghar, the meeting venue at the secretariat, completing entry formalities for all members of the delegation who were granted access by the government.

Before starting from their sit-in spot outside Swasthya Bhavan, the health department headquarters, the protesters stated they would not settle for anything less than a live stream of the talks, which had earlier been rejected by the state chief secretary in its latest invitation for the meeting.

At the meeting venue, both doctors and senior government officials were separately huddled in meetings, perceptively to decide whether or not to live stream the meeting proceedings. 

(With inputs from PTI)