Mamata invites agitating doctors for '5th and final time' for talks

The West Bengal government on Monday "for the fifth and the final time" invited the protesting junior doctors for talks to end the RG Kar impasse, two days after the dialogue failed to take off over disagreement on live-streaming of the meeting.

In an email to the protesting junior doctors, Chief secretary Manoj Pant asked them to reach Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's residence at Kalighat at 5 pm on Monday for the talks.

"This is the fifth and the final time we are reaching out to you for a meeting between the honourable CM and the delegates. In line with our discussion the day before (Saturday), we are once again inviting you for the meeting with the CM at her Kalighat residence for discussions with an open mind," he wrote.

Pant hoped "Good sense will prevail" as mutually agreed on Saturday that there will be no live-streaming or videography of the meeting given the matter is sub-judice before the Supreme Court.

"Instead, the minutes of the meeting will be recorded and signed by both the parties," he said..

Responding to the mail, the agitating doctors said they will discuss among themselves and then announce their decision whether to attend the meeting.

Junior doctors of the state-run hospital have been on cease work in protest against the rape-murder of a doctor in the facility on August 9.

Banerjee on Saturday made a surprise visit to the site where junior doctors were protesting and assured them that their demands would be addressed, asking them to come for talks, but the proposed meeting fell through with the protesters claiming that they were asked to leave "unceremoniously" after waiting for three hours at the gates of CM's residence.

After the protesters refused to enter Banerjee's residence due to the government's rejection of their demand for a live telecast, she came out to appeal to the doctors to join the talks and urged them "not to insult her," and promised them that a signed copy of the minutes of the meeting would be given.