Junior doctors come out of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence without a meeting, in Kolkata, on September 14, 2024. Junior doctors are protesting against the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor. | Photo Credit: PTI After a meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and protesting resident doctors was called off on Saturday (September 14, 2024), the doctors said they had accepted all the ‘conditions’ laid out for the discussions. The doctors went to the Chief Minister’s residence in Kalighat to hold talks.The doctors said they were disappointed with the outcome of the visit as the sit-in demonstration near the State’s Health Department headquarters entered the fifth day with no resolution in sight. Also read | CBI arrests police officer, R.G. Kar principal in Kolkata rape and murder case “They refused to let us video record the meeting. We accepted it. They also refused to let us access the video they were supposed to record, we accepted that as well. They promised to share minutes of the meeting with both signatures of both the parties. We accepted this after 10 minutes of discussion out of respect for the CM, but they turned us down saying they have waited too long for us,” said a doctor.The doctors asked that if they can wait for justice for the past 35 days, why can’t the authorities wait for three hours.Many protesting doctors watching the live coverage of their fellow colleagues outside Ms. Banerjee’s residence broke down but promised to keep fighting. A protesting doctor said, “We have fought and have been on the roads for the past 35 days even amidst terrible weather. We are ready to stay on for another 35 days if needed.”“The honourable CM asked us to come in and have a cup of tea. We went to show that we are more than willing to negotiate with an open mind. Did we go there to drink tea,” asked Debasish Halder after returning from Ms. Banerjee’s residence. He said the fruitless visit raised questions about the Chief Minister’s intentions behind holding talks with them. Reacting to the arrest of former R.G. Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and Tala police station officer in-charge Abhijit Mondal in the rape and murder case, Dr. Halder said, “The CM and her associates came to know about their arrests and that is the real reason why they refused to meet us at the last moment. We have said from day one that there have been attempts to tamper evidence. These arrests prove that the five-point demands that we have about the arrests and evidence tampering are justified.” “They have always tried to tarnish our image from day one. A section of the media has published news about our political affiliations without any proof. There is a malicious campaign running here. A lot of random suspicious people are standing here around us at the protest site and clicking our photos, saying absurd things to us,” said Arnab Mukherjee, another protesting doctor. Published – September 15, 2024 12:28 am IST