Following assurances from Union Health Minister JP Nadda, the Federation of Resident Doctors' Associations (FORDA) decided to call off its nationwide strike on Tuesday.
Following their discussion with the minister, FORDA president Aviral Mathur told ANI that they received assurances that their requests for a safer workplace will be quickly fulfilled.
“We just met Union minister JP Nadda at his residence and presented our reformulated demands and before him... He assured us that he would provide a safe working environment for doctors. He has assured us that our demands would be addressed in a time-bound manner,” Mathur said.
A committee will be formed to oversee these issues, according to Mathur, and it was determined during the discussion to include officials from FORDA. Thus, FORDA made the decision to call off the strike.
In response to the cruel murder of a female doctor at RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata, resident doctors around India went on an indefinite strike on Monday. This action caused a disruption to non-emergency surgeries and outpatient clinics as well as elective treatments.
A central law against violence in healthcare settings and the declaration of hospitals as safe zones were among the main demands made by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) during their earlier Tuesday meeting with Health Minister Nadda.
The postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College was raped and killed last Thursday, which set off the strike. Her body was found at the government-run hospital in Kolkata's seminar hall.
The transfer of the inquiry from the Kolkata Police to the CBI was directed by the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam asked the striking doctors to return to work, emphasizing their "pious obligation" to care patients at government hospitals, even as they directed the CBI to take over the inquiry.
On Tuesday night, two CBI agents went to the Tala Police Station in Kolkata to gather records pertaining to the Kolkata Police's rape case investigation.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)