The rallies were organised from R G Kar hospital, Sagore Dutta Hospital, SSKM Hospital, Calcutta Medical College, and Jadavpur in south Kolkata.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Manoj Kumar Verma was appointed the new Kolkata Police commissioner, replacing Vineet Goyal, on Tuesday, a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with agitating junior doctors and agreed to their demands in a bid to resolve the more than a month-long impasse over the RG Kar hospital incident.
The Calcutta high court on Tuesday directed that a resolution by the special college council members of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital to suspend 57 medics/students will not be effected, until and unless a decision is arrived at by the West Bengal government in this regard.
Jagjit Singh Dallewal, a farmer leader, is on an indefinite hunger strike that has entered its 34th day. The Supreme Court has criticized the Punjab government for not shifting Dallewal to a hospital, while farmer leaders have said they are following Gandhian principles and it is up to the government to decide whether to use force to evict him. The farmers are protesting for several demands, including a legal guarantee for a minimum support price (MSP) for crops. The protests have reached a decisive stage, with the SKM (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha calling for a Punjab bandh on Monday.
West Bengal Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday accused the police of keeping the parents of the doctor who was allegedly raped and murdered under 'house arrest'.
The top court on Monday directed the protesting resident doctors to resume work by 5 pm on Tuesday, observing that if "there is continued abstention from work, there may be a likelihood of adverse action".
West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose reached Delhi on Monday night amid speculations that he may meet President Droupadi Murmu and senior leaders.
The junior doctors called off their 'total cease work' at state-run medical colleges and hospitals around 8.30 pm on Friday but threatened to launch a hunger strike till death if their demands were not met by the West Bengal government within 24 hours.
The Supreme Court criticized the Punjab government for making irresponsible statements regarding farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal's indefinite fast and questioned the intentions of some farmer leaders. The court emphasized that it never directed Dallewal to break his fast but expressed concern for his health and urged medical aid. The bench expressed frustration over the government's attempts to create an impression that they were persuading Dallewal to end his fast, despite the court's directives to provide medical aid.
Kolkata Police on Friday said it has so far arrested 19 people in connection with the vandalism and violence at R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in the metropolis.
Alleging that the West Bengal government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has failed to carry out its basic duties to protect the lives and properties of citizens, Governor C V Ananda Bose on Wednesday said that his office is already intervening in the RG Kar impasse under provisions in the Constitution.
Police said they began lathicharging and tear gassing after the agitators managed to breach the barricades at some locations and attacked the security personnel.
Asserting that her government has zero tolerance to incidents of rape, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said an amendment to existing laws will be passed in the state assembly next week to ensure capital punishment to convicted rapists.
The CBI's failure to file a chargesheet within the mandated 90 days has resulted in bail being granted to two key suspects in the rape-murder case of an on-duty medic at RG Kar Hospital in Kolkata. This comes just days after the West Bengal Police secured capital punishment for a convict in a similar crime against a minor. The delay in justice has sparked outrage, particularly among the victim's family and junior doctors who are demanding accountability.
"I cannot take this insult anymore. All the allegations raised against me are false and fabricated. A student movement has been incited to remove me. There is a political mind behind this. I had informed police within an hour of the incident. CCTV footage has been handed over to police," Ghosh said.
The cabinet of the new government led by Rekha Gupta balances representation of all major communities that propelled the Bharatiya Janata Party to power in Delhi with a massive majority after over 26 years.
rediffGURU Dr Ashish Sehgal counsels individuals on how to resolve conflicts and prioritise mental wellbeing.
'If she manages to throw out people, go for surgical operations, clean up her image, she will be victorious.'
Eighty-seven days after the body of a woman medic was found at state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, a Kolkata court on Monday framed charges against the prime accused, Sanjay Roy.
Two men were hospitalised after they set themselves afire on Friday amid a bandh call in Madhya Pradesh's Pithampur against the planned disposal of 337 tonnes of Union Carbide waste in the industrial town, an official said.
Sircar, a retired IAS officer, claimed that corruption by a section of leaders of his party and lack of action against them was one of the reasons for his decision.
The ruling Trinamool Congress claimed that the strike call exposed the BJP's game plan to foment disturbances in the state exploiting people's pain over the alleged rape and murder of a woman doctor.
He indicated his conviction will remain firm even if that "uprising" ultimately puts the party he faithfully served for 13 years in the dock.
Officials said the three others who have been arrested are Ghosh's security guard Afsar Ali (44), and hospital vendors Biplav Singha (52) and Suman Hazara (46) who used to supply material to the hospital.
Later, the Central Bureau of Investigation took over the probe and found that the two women were never raped or murdered.
The Supreme Court on Thursday criticised Kolkata Police for their 'extremely disturbing' delay in registering the case of a woman doctor who was raped and killed at RG Kar Hospital, while also urging the agitating doctors to return to work amid the fourteenth day of disruptions in healthcare services in Bengal's state-run hospitals.
In a video message, Bose also said he will also socially boycott the chief minister.
A special bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Kauser Edappagath directed the State Police Chief to come out with a new set of protocols for ensuring security of the doctors and other healthcare professionals in all government hospitals in the state.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will conduct a psychological assessment of Sanjay Roy, the accused in a rape-and-murder case of a doctor in Kolkata that has triggered nationwide protests, officials said on Saturday.
The doctors' bodies said that the two sides reached consensus during talks with the state government agreeing to keep private hospitals that have not availed land at subsidised rates or other benefits from it outside the ambit of the proposed law.
The decision followed a petition by former deputy superintendent of the medical establishment, Akhtar Ali, who sought an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged financial misconduct during the tenure of the college's former principal, Sandip Ghosh.
The proposed committee, to be headed by the secretary of medical education, would study various issues raised by postgraduate students and house surgeons and submit a report within one month, health minister Veena George said.
'Although there is a visible dent in TMC's urban votes, especially among women, the CPI-M and the BJP are unlikely to benefit from this'
The state police have called the scheduled rallies, support for which has been mainly garnered over social media platforms, as "illegal" and "unauthorised", and said they have taken necessary precautions to allay apprehensions about potential law and order situations during the march.
Police said there were intelligence inputs that attempts would be made to trigger violence during the match, because of which it was cancelled.
A doctors' body has threatened to launch a stir if the Maharashtra government doesn't take action after a video of the acting dean of a state-run hospital in Nanded, where 31 patients have died in 48 hours, being forced to clean a toilet by a Shiv Sena MP went viral.
In a statement, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association said the decision has been taken in view of the developments in the last few days in connection with the issue, and the death of chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat and others in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.
While five resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital had been sitting on a relay hunger strike since Friday, the senior doctors of the North Corporation-run facilities had gone on an indefinite strike on Tuesday. Their associations had joined hands in solidarity since Tuesday.
Activists Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare, who have been sitting on a hunger strike at Wadigodri village in Jalna district since June 13, did not allow doctors to check their health or administer intravenous fluids.
The doctors, who are protesting against the assault on two of their colleagues at NRS Medical College and Hospital, had on Friday sought unconditional apology from Banerjee and set six conditions for the state government in order to withdraw their stir.