Junior doctors, protesting over RG Kar horror, continue fast unto death amid Durga Puja festivities
Kolkata (PTI): The junior doctors, agitating over the rape and murder of their colleague at the RG Kar hospital, continued their fast unto death for the fifth day on Thursday amid the Durga Puja festivities across West Bengal.
At 9.30 am, the fast by the nine junior doctors of various medical colleges entered its 108th hour.
The junior doctors began the fast unto death on Saturday evening at the Dorina Crossing in Dharmatala in the heart of Kolkata after ending the total cease work that had crippled healthcare services.
Meanwhile, the state government convened a meeting on Wednesday evening with the protestors but failed to break the deadlock.
Following the meeting, which was chaired by Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, the protesting doctors alleged that they received nothing concrete from the state except "verbal assurances".
"Our friends have been protesting without food for over four days, and the government says it will consider our demands only in the third week of October, after the pujas. We never expected such insensitivity," said Debasish Halder of the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front.
At the protest site, the doctors also criticised the police for apprehending their colleagues who were demonstrating and distributing leaflets outside some Durga Puja pandals in the city on Wednesday.
The protesting doctors emphasised that securing justice for the deceased woman medic remains their foremost priority.
They also called for the immediate removal of Health Secretary NS Nigam, alleging administrative incompetence and inaction against corruption in the department.
Other demands include the establishment of a centralised referral system for all hospitals and medical colleges in the state, the implementation of a bed vacancy monitoring system, and the formation of task forces to ensure essential provisions for CCTV, on-call rooms, and washrooms at their workplaces.
They are also demanding increased police protection in hospitals, recruitment of permanent women police personnel, and swift filling of vacant positions for doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers.
The junior doctors went on to cease work following the rape-murder of a fellow medic at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
They ended their stir after 42 days on September 21 following assurances from the state government to look into their demands.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Goodbye my lighthouse, Tata's long-time associate Naidu bids adieu to his boss
Mumbai (PTI): Shantanu Naidu, a long-time associate of Ratan Tata, on Thursday bid adieu to the industrialist, comparing his boss to a "lighthouse".
"The hole that this friendship has now left with me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to fill," Naidu, a general manager in the Office of RNT, wrote on a professional networking site in the early hours.
Later in the morning, everybody saw Naidu riding out of Tata's house on a Yezdi motorcycle, leading the truck carrying his boss' mortal remains.
"Grief is the price to pay for love. Goodbye, my dear lighthouse," said the short post, accompanied by a picture of the two in what seems like a chartered aircraft.
It was the mutual love and concern for dogs which had formed a bond between Tata and Naidu, a Pune-based youngster who had started working for a Tata group company.
Pained by the sight of a stray dog's death, Reddy created a reflective collar to help motorists notice the strays quicker and wrote to Tata about the same.
Tata replied with much more than an acknowledgement. Naidu received an investment from Tata for this venture and an enduring bond.
Naidu soon went to the US for his masters and on the return, got placed in the Office of RNT, the private office of the industrialist post his stint as Tata Sons Chairman.
Outside of his day job of managing affairs for Tata, Naidu kept creating socially relevant platforms and services, and his indulgent boss often backed these ideas, up prime among them was Goodfellows, a subscription-based companionship service for senior citizens started in 2022.
Though struggling on the health front, Tata made sure that he attends the launch event for the startup in which he had invested an undisclosed sum.
Visuals of that event are fresh on everybody's mind, as are the ones of Naidu celebrating his boss' birthday a few months before.
