Protesting doctors ready to meet CM Mamata Banerjee at her venue, but demand media presence

"We leave it to the CM to choose the venue. We are ready to talk. We hope this discussion will be arranged and Banerjee will consider our demands that will help in restarting medical facilities again," the general body of the doctors was quoted as saying by News18 softening their stand that the CM must visit them at the protest venue for any talks.

"We want immediate end to this impasse with discussion with CM which should maintain transparency and not behind closed doors but in front of the media," the doctors demanded.

The junior doctors went for an indefinite strike across West Bengal after relatives of Kolkata's Tangra resident an elderly Md. Sayeed, whose death at the NRS Hospital prompted cries of medical negligence from them, brought some 200 people to the hospital and beat up junior doctors, seriously wounding one Paribaha Mukhopadhayay on Monday night.

As the agitation intensified with a standoff between the doctors and the chief minister, hundreds of doctors from state-run hospitals in Kolkata tendered resignation.

The agitators were earlier demanding the CM to visit NRS Medical College and Hospital for a meeting.

They even did not meet the CM at Nabanna, West Bengal state secretariat, for the past two days.

The protest strike by the junior doctors at the  Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital (NRSMCH) in Kolkata entered its sixth day on Sunday .

Mamata meets press:

Earlier on Saturday, staying firm in their own demands, the protesting junior doctors had turned down Mamata Banerjee's offer to sit across table at Nabanna and urged her to visit the hospital.

"After the kind of language our Chief Minister used against us, we have decided not to go to Nabanna. We are worried about the patients. We urge our Chief Minister to come to NRS and talk to us and find a solution,"  an intern of NRS on behalf of the agitators had said.

Addressing a press conference on Saturday evening after the doctors refused her call to have a talk at Nabanna, Banerjee once again urged the doctors to return to work, assuring them that her government would not invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA).

"We have the laws, but we do not want to use them... We are not going to take any stringent action against any of the agitating junior doctors since we don't want to ruin their career," Banerjee said.

Why did the strike start?

The junior doctors went for an indefinite strike across West Bengal after relatives of Kolkata's Tangra resident 85-year-old Md. Sayeed, whose death at the NRS Hospital prompted cries of medical negligence from them, brought some 200 people to the hospital and beat up junior doctors, seriously wounding Paribaha Mukhopadhayay on Monday night.

The matter got more complex after Banerjee visited the SSKM Hospital a day ago and lost her cool over the protesters.

Banerjee, amid sloganeering by the agitators, alleged that the protesters are "outsiders". She even sent an ultimatum to the agitators to join work within four hours or else they would face action. However, Banerjee's ultimatum didn't change the situation much.

Doctors from Delhi, Mumbai and other cities have also joined the protest against the assault on Mukhopadhyay.

Going tough with the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court on Friday asked the ruling dispensation to mediate with the junior doctors protesting against the attack on their mate Paribaha Mukhopadhyay.