West Bengal’s Malda Medical College and Hospital erupt in protests demanding elected student bodies and end to ‘threat culture’

Protests spread to multiple medical colleges and State-run hospitals in West Bengal after a female doctor was found raped and killed at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9

As cease work protests by agitating junior doctors continue in Kolkata for the 41st day, junior doctors and medical students of Malda Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) on Wednesday (September 18, 2024) made renewed demands to the hospital administration for an end to the alleged threat culture in the hospital, and the formation of a democratically-elected students’ council and resident doctors’ association.

Protests spread to multiple medical colleges and State-run hospitals in West Bengal after a female doctor was found raped and killed at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. Agitating junior doctors, joined by senior medical practitioners, social activists and common people, have been protesting to demand justice for the victim, heightened security measures in all State-run medical institutions, and a remedy to the alleged threat culture that prevails in the healthcare system.

Protesting junior doctors and medical students at MMCH also gherao-ed the Medical Superintendent and Principal in their protests. Protestors claimed that students have also been deliberately failed in college examinations and deprived of hostel accommodation as a consequence of the prevailing threat culture.

MMCH principal Partha Pratim Mukherjee said the hospital administration will take steps to ensure a ‘zero-tolerance’ to threat culture, despite not having received a formal complaint about the same. “Moreover, there is no student council here. For that, we will have to take up with higher authorities,” he added.

Meanwhile, the sit-in demonstration by protesting junior doctors, activists and common people outside the State Health Department headquarters (Swasthya Bhavan) in Kolkata continued for the tenth day on Thursday. The protests are hinged on the five-point demands posed by the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which include justice for the victim, tangible security measures in medical institutions in the State, steps to stop ‘threat culture’, and removal of the Principal Secretary, Health. 

Published - September 19, 2024 11:23 pm IST