People offer food, umbrellas to agitating doctors, thousands treated at free ‘Abhaya’ clinic

Kolkata, Sep 14 (PTI) Forty-year-old Arpan Maity, a practising physician and an alumnus of R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, was busy collecting food items, clothes, raincoats, umbrellas and other materials at a makeshift counter near the state health department headquarters where thousands of medics have been staging a sit-in for the last five days.

From cots, bed sheets and raincoats to large umbrellas and food packets, the agitators are flooded with items from common people, Maity told PTI at the agitation site.

“Till 2 pm on Saturday, 3,000 food packets have been served for free to people, not only to the protestors but also to local hawkers, rickshaw-pullers, autorickshaw drivers, journalists and other those who have come to the site to express solidarity with the movement,” he said.

Prajakta Sikdar, another volunteer who is dividing her time between raising slogans and manning one of the four counters at the protest site, said that till 1.30 pm on Saturday, she had distributed around 600 vegetarian food packets among the people.

“Please don’t hesitate… Tell me what you want, we have prepared all these packets for you. If you want to have cakes or other refreshments, that is also available,” she was heard telling a person.

A taxi driver was seen unloading hundreds of packets of food from the vehicle’s boot, while three people in another vehicle were seen bringing folding cots to the site.

“A well-wisher, who is a teacher of an English medium school in Sodepur, has sent these 400 food packets but she can’t identify herself,” the taxi driver said while offering a packet to this correspondent.

Dibyendu Banerjee, a junior doctor manning the ‘Abhaya’ Clinic, which has been set up to treat patients at the site, said that till now 350 people, including policemen, have been treated.

“People are coming for check-up, treatment and our team of five physicians are attending to everyone and giving medicine for free if needed,” he said.

From people taking part in the protest to families of hawkers and other locals — the clinic, named in the memory of the rape-murder victim of R G Kar Hospital — has been packed with patients since the crack of dawn.

“We had opened the clinic three days back. Over 500 people are visiting the clinic every day,” Banerjee said.

The Junior Doctors’ Forum is spearheading the movement demanding justice for the medic and the resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal and the health secretary over the incident.