Filmmaker Aparna Sen appeals to 'guardian' Mamata Banerjee to meet striking docs

Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], Jun 14 (ANI): Award-winning filmmaker and actress Aparna Sen on Friday appealed to Chief Minister West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee to meet striking doctors, to listen and talk to them without any precondition, in order to resolve the ongoing situation.
"I would like to request the state chief minister to please come here and talk to the junior doctors. If you felt bad with someone's behavior, please forgive them. They are small children and future doctors, being elder to them, you should come here and talk to them. You head the health ministry. As a guardian why are you not visiting them?" Sen said.
The veteran actress made this statement during a visit to Nil Ratan Sarkar (NRS) Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata to meet doctors who struck work after an intern doctor was allegedly assaulted by relatives of a patient who died on June 10.
Sen also asked whether it would be good for the state if the doctors left West Bengal?
"Don't you think that you should come here and talk to these junior doctors? My earnest request to you is to meet them here without any condition. Do you think that it will be good for Bengal if they will leave our state?" Sen asked.
The filmmaker also urged the Banerjee-led state government to declare zero tolerance for assault against doctors.
Earlier today, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan criticised Bengal Government's handling of the situation and said he would write to Banerjee on it.
"I appeal to West Bengal CM to not make this an issue of prestige. She gave the doctors an ultimatum, as a result, they got angry and went on strike. Today, I will write to Mamata Banerjee ji and will also try to speak to her on this issue," Vardhan had told ANI.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked agitating junior doctors in West Bengal to resume work within four hours. Banerjee had appealed to protesting doctors in the state to get back to work and ensure that hospitals can run "smoothly and peacefully".
While 27 doctors of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Darjeeling resigned over the violence against doctors in the state, a total of 16 doctors of R. G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata also submitted their resignation.
Various medical bodies called doctors' strike across the country in protest over the rising violence against the medical fraternity.
However, the protesting doctors have not called off the strike yet and are demanding adequate security in every medical college and hospital.
Doctors in other parts of the country including Delhi and other cities staged protests and boycotted work in solidarity with their colleagues in West Bengal. Doctors at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) were seen wearing helmets and bandages as they attended to patients. (ANI)