West Bengal Government Rejects Doctors’ Mass Resignation

In Shorts:

West Bengal government rejects the mass resignation of doctors.
The government states that only individual resignations will be considered valid.
The mass resignation was declared legally invalid.

The West Bengal government on Saturday announced that the mass resignation of doctors from government hospitals is not legally valid. According to service rules, resignations must be submitted individually and not collectively.

Senior doctors from state-run medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal have resigned en masse, creating a stir within the state’s healthcare system. Along with them, doctors from the College of Medicine and Sagore Dutta Hospital and the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (PGMER) are also preparing to tender their resignations, further pressuring the Mamata Banerjee-led government.

In response, Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, clarified that the government will not accept mass resignations. He emphasized that resignations are a personal matter between the employee and employer, according to service rules, and these collective letters hold no legal value.

“Resignations are an individual matter and must be processed according to the rulebook. These collective letters have no legal validity,” Bandyopadhyay stated. He further added that the government has received scattered letters from different hospitals, but they were not submitted collectively.

The government’s stance has intensified the ongoing standoff with the medical community. The mass resignation letters, deemed invalid due to non-compliance with individual submission requirements, have added fuel to the existing friction between the medical professionals and the state government.

Earlier this week, a group of senior doctors at R G Kar Medical College submitted a collectively signed “mass resignation” letter in solidarity with their protesting junior colleagues. This move was soon echoed by doctors from other state-run hospitals.

Junior doctors across various government hospitals in the state are currently on a hunger strike, demanding justice for their murdered colleague, the resignation of the state’s health secretary, and better workplace security measures. This has further escalated tensions between the state’s healthcare workers and the government.