Kolkata, Oct 14 (IANS) The Kolkata Police on Monday refused to give "no objection" to the proposed human-chain protest here on Tuesday by representatives from the medical fraternity against the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata in August this year.
Referring to the earlier note by Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body of the junior doctors spearheading the movement on the rape and murder issue, the Kolkata Police claimed that the human-chain protest christened as "Droh-Carnival" cannot be permitted since it coincides with the annual carnival on immersion of Durga idols organised by the state government.
However, the junior doctors have claimed that the logic given both in the Chief Secretary’s mail and the police communique as baseless, since the place of "Droh-Carnival" is quite a distance from the route of Durga idol immersion carnival.
WBJDF has clearly said that whether they get the police permission or not they are determined to go ahead with the human-chain protest demonstration.
"Police have denied permission. We did not even seek permission. We just intimated them. Conducting the rally is within our democratic rights. We informed the police about our programme four days back. But the police did not give us any reply and now at the last moment they are denying permission," said the WBJDF joint convener Punyabrata Guin.
In fact, the representatives of 12 doctors' associations during the meeting with the Chief Secretary earlier in the day had made it clear that there was no question of withdrawing the "Droh-Carnival".
The representatives of the doctors' associations also invited the Chief Secretary and the state home secretary Nandini Chakraborty to the "Droh-Carnival".
--IANS
src/pgh
