Kolkata, Aug 30 (UNI) Amid ongoing protests in Kolkata, the cease-work agitation by junior doctors in West Bengal government-owned hospitals entered its 22nd day on Friday even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a second letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a stringent Central law and fixed time-frame for trial in rape and murder cases.
In a letter dated August 29, which was shared on X, Chief Minister Banerjee said, “I would reiterate and earnestly request to kindly consider a stringent Central legislation and exemplary punishment on heinous crimes of rape/rape and murder with mandatory provision for disposal of cases in a specific time-frame by the trial authorities.”
She had written her first letter to the PM on August 22.
A series of protest marches were taken out on Friday in Kolkata by political parties, including Trinamool students’ wing and BJP women’s wing, and civil society while R G Kar Hospital doctors continued their agitation to seek justice in the alleged rape and murder of their 31-year-old lady colleague.
Demonstrators from BJP women’s wing attempted to lay siege to the state women’s commission but their attempt to reach the building was foiled by police which detained dozens of workers from Metro stations and starting point of the march.
R G Kar Hospital’s ousted principal Sandip Ghosh once again appeared before CBI officials on Friday, the 15th day in a row.
Hundreds of parents of the school students on Friday marched silently in the city seeking justice for the medic and ensuring safe environment for the young generation and the elderly.
Civil activists, medics, advocates and netizens also held protests across the city, including outside the CBI office in Salt Lake.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal seeking an “Action Taken Report” on use of lathicharge and tear gas on protesters during ” Nabanna Avijan” or march to secretariat on Tuesday.
Sstudent leader Sayan Lahiri of the West Bengal Chhatra Samaj, the organisation which sponsored the Nabanna march, moved Calcutta High Court against his arrest.
The petition alleged that he was arrested on Wednesday without notice after he emerged from the office of a private TV channel.
A separate report from Medinipur said that junior medics at the Medinipur Medical College and Hospital went on brief strike after a doctors, allegedly having allegiance to the ruling Trinamool Congress, put pressure on them to end their cease-work stir.
The hospital authorities immediately intervened and doctor Mustafuzur Rahman Mallick, who allegedly threatened the agitating medics, was externed from the campus.
