WB doctors in no mood to relent despite Mamata offer

PTI, KOLKATA: Agitating doctors Saturday turned down West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's offer for talks at the state secretariat saying they fear about their security and rejected her appeal to end their stir, which entered the fifth day.

As medical services in the state remained paralysed, Banerjee urged the agitators to resume work and said her government has accepted all their demands.

The Ministry of Home Affairs issued an advisory seeking a report on the stir. But Banerjee reacted sharply to it and said such advisory should be "sent to states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where several murders are reported since the last couple of years".

Bengal Governor K N Tripathi wrote to Banerjee advising her to take immediate steps to provide security to the medicos and find out a solution to the impasse.

Banerjee later said that she has spoken to the governor and apprised him about the steps taken by the state government to resolve the impasse.

She also said her government has not invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) even after five days of the strike by the junior doctors.

"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 and hamper their career," she told a news conference after the agitators did not turn up for a meeting at 5 pm.