RG Kar protest: One more junior doctor on hunger strike hospitalised

Kolkata, Oct 13 (IANS) One more junior doctor on a fast-unto-death demonstration at Esplanade in central Kolkata over the rape and murder of a junior doctor of R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital has been hospitalised following severe deteriorations in his medical conditions.

Pulastya Acharya, the said junior doctor attached to state-run N.R.S Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata, started reporting severe stomach ache and vomiting tendencies, the two common symptoms of adverse effects of continuous fasting, since 9 p.m. on Sunday.

At around 11 p.m. as his medical condition deteriorated further, the other junior doctors did not take the risk and decided to hospitalise him. Since Pulastya is attached to N.R.S., his fellows decided to admit him there only.

Pulastya is the fourth junior doctor to be hospitalised following a deterioration in medical conditions, with the other three being Aniket Mahato of R.G. Kar, Anustup Mukhopadhyay of Calcutta Medical College & Hospital and Alok Verma of North Bengal Medical College & Hospital at Siliguri in Darjeeling district.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of junior doctors in West Bengal spearheading the movement on the rape and murder case, has questioned the continuing silence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after so many junior doctors have been hospitalised because of their continuous fasting in support of their demands on the rape and murder case.

“It is painful that the Chief Minister is maintaining a grisly silence in the matter. We never expected the state government to be so inhuman,” said Debasish Halder, one of the leading faces of the junior doctor’s movement on this issue.

Halder’s wife, Snigdha Hazra, also a junior doctor, is one of the remaining six hunger strikers who are still continuing their fast-unto-death agitation at Esplanade.

–IANS

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