Amidst the ongoing agitation against the rape and murder of a female doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College, the health department on Wednesday removed four officials of the college. The health department has transferred the recently appointed principal, superintendent, additional superintendent and HOD of the chest department. The protesters protesting in the rape-murder case were demanding that these hospital officials be removed.
According to the report of Anand Bazar Patrika, the agitators marched from CGO Complex to Swasthya Bhawan on Wednesday and a delegation also submitted a memorandum to the Health Department. The agitators demanded that the current Principal Surhita Pal and Superintendent Bulbul Mukherjee be removed from their posts. The Health Department accepted the agitators’ demand and decided to transfer four officials.
Saurabh Ganguly joined the protest
The protests in Kolkata continued on Wednesday as well. This matter has shaken the whole country. Veteran cricketer and former captain of Indian cricket Sourav Ganguly has also joined this protest. Sourav Ganguly along with his entire family joined the ongoing protest after the protest march on Wednesday. He expressed his protest by lighting candles there.
In this regard, Saurabh Ganguly’s wife Dona Ganguly told reporters, “We are protesting against rape. We need a safe society. Rape has to be stopped.” Emphasizing the seriousness of the matter, she said that this is not just an incident but a serious matter for the safety of society. Saurabh’s daughter Sana Ganguly also spoke on the occasion and said, “We want justice, all this should stop. Every day we get to hear some news of rape and it is sad that all this is happening even in 2024.”
Wednesday marked the tenth day of doctors’ protest organised by the Indian Medical Association (IMA), severely affecting public healthcare in West Bengal. Though there were no fresh arrests in the case, the CBI continued questioning top officials of the RG Kar Hospital. Meanwhile, a former administrator of the hospital moved the High Court seeking an Enforcement Directorate probe into alleged financial irregularities against the hospital’s former principal.
There was a protest to remove the principal
Senior doctors, nurses and aspiring doctors from the state’s medical colleges marched to the ‘Swasthya Bhawan’, the headquarters of the state health department, and gheraoed the premises. Later, representatives of the protesters met top officials of the department and submitted a memorandum in the afternoon. “Our newly appointed principal Dr Surhita Pal is missing. She is our patron but she has not come to the campus since the night the hospital was vandalised. We have heard that she is working from the Swasthya Bhawan. So we are going there to look for her,” said a junior doctor. Coming out of the meeting, the protesting doctors said they were extremely disappointed with the attitude of the officials.
A doctor said, “We are not here to seek justice. We are here to tell the government that it should immediately remove all hospital officials who were in charge of administration on the night of the crime and ensure that they never hold administrative positions again. But the health officials could not do that.”
CBI called the former principal for investigation
Meanwhile, the CBI questioned former principal of RG Kar Hospital Sandip Ghosh for the sixth consecutive day. The agency officials have also summoned several other top officials of the hospital, including the current superintendent and vice-principal of the hospital Bulbul Mukhopadhyay, who has previously served as the dean of student affairs. A day before the agency submits its investigation progress report to the Supreme Court on Thursday, the investigators are trying to probe several discrepancies found in Ghosh’s statements, sources said.
