KOLKATA: The Bengal govt bowed to pressure from agitating doctors and transferred Wednesday RG Kar medical college’s newly appointed principal Suhrita Paul and three other officials under scrutiny since the Aug 9 rape-murder of a junior doctor on campus.
Paul, who was appointed principal after her predecessor Sandip Ghosh resigned on Aug 13, makes way for the return of Manas Banerjee to an institution he would have headed from Sept 2023 but for an unprecedented standoff that saw his room being locked for three days before he was transferred again.
Saptarshi Chatterjee replaces medical superintendent and vice-principal Bulbul Mukherjee in the reshuffle, but appointments to the posts vacated by chest medicine head Arunabha Datta Chowdhury and assistant superintendent Dwaipayan Biswas hadn’t been made until late Wednesday.
The transfers capped a day of continued unrest, including doctors marching from CBI’s office in Salt Lake to Swasthya Bhavan, the health department’s headquarters.
Paul, appointed as principal of Barasat Medical College on the outskirts of Kolkata, attended office at RG Kar only for a day since taking over from Ghosh. She worked from Swasthya Bhavan over the past nine days, visiting RG Kar only for a meeting with CISF officials on hospital security, sources said.
Assistant superintendent Biswas has been revealed to be the official who called the rape-murder victim’s parents on Aug 9 and told them their daughter died by suicide.
Mukherjee, dean of student affairs when the crime occurred, was elevated to the post of medical superintendent and vice-principal after the incumbent was shunted out to Calcutta National Medical College as a professor. Mukherjee’s transfer coincided with his CBI questioning.
The axe fell on respiratory medicine head Chowdhury since the victim was a trainee doctor attached to his department. The protesting doctors had been demanding that he be made accountable for a crime in which one of his students was the victim.
During their march, the junior doctors handed over a charter of demands to principal health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam and director of medical education Kaustav Nayek.
Carrying placards, banners and posters, the protesters began the 3km march at 12.30pm. Cops stopped them at the main gate to the health department’s headquarters when they demanded that a 35-strong delegation be allowed to meet the director of medical education.
“We are scared after the rape-murder of a colleague and the vandalism at our hospital. In these trying times, we attempted to flag our concerns several times, but the new principal, Suhrita Pal, didn’t show up. If she has no willingness to even come to the institution, she better resign,” said Pratibha Pradhan, a second-year PG student at RG Kar.
Sources said similar protests at other medical colleges in the state forced the health department to act.
Paul, who was appointed principal after her predecessor Sandip Ghosh resigned on Aug 13, makes way for the return of Manas Banerjee to an institution he would have headed from Sept 2023 but for an unprecedented standoff that saw his room being locked for three days before he was transferred again.
Saptarshi Chatterjee replaces medical superintendent and vice-principal Bulbul Mukherjee in the reshuffle, but appointments to the posts vacated by chest medicine head Arunabha Datta Chowdhury and assistant superintendent Dwaipayan Biswas hadn’t been made until late Wednesday.
The transfers capped a day of continued unrest, including doctors marching from CBI’s office in Salt Lake to Swasthya Bhavan, the health department’s headquarters.
Paul, appointed as principal of Barasat Medical College on the outskirts of Kolkata, attended office at RG Kar only for a day since taking over from Ghosh. She worked from Swasthya Bhavan over the past nine days, visiting RG Kar only for a meeting with CISF officials on hospital security, sources said.
Assistant superintendent Biswas has been revealed to be the official who called the rape-murder victim’s parents on Aug 9 and told them their daughter died by suicide.
Mukherjee, dean of student affairs when the crime occurred, was elevated to the post of medical superintendent and vice-principal after the incumbent was shunted out to Calcutta National Medical College as a professor. Mukherjee’s transfer coincided with his CBI questioning.
The axe fell on respiratory medicine head Chowdhury since the victim was a trainee doctor attached to his department. The protesting doctors had been demanding that he be made accountable for a crime in which one of his students was the victim.
During their march, the junior doctors handed over a charter of demands to principal health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam and director of medical education Kaustav Nayek.
Carrying placards, banners and posters, the protesters began the 3km march at 12.30pm. Cops stopped them at the main gate to the health department’s headquarters when they demanded that a 35-strong delegation be allowed to meet the director of medical education.
“We are scared after the rape-murder of a colleague and the vandalism at our hospital. In these trying times, we attempted to flag our concerns several times, but the new principal, Suhrita Pal, didn’t show up. If she has no willingness to even come to the institution, she better resign,” said Pratibha Pradhan, a second-year PG student at RG Kar.
Sources said similar protests at other medical colleges in the state forced the health department to act.
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