KOLKATA: Indian authorities in Kolkata have sacked the city's police chief and senior health ministry officials after furious protests over the brutal rape and murder of a doctor.
The discovery of the 31-year-old doctor's bloodied body at a state hospital in the eastern megacity on August 9 has fueled national anger over the chronic problem of violence against women.
The murder has sparked protests across India and repeated strikes by doctors demanding safer conditions for women.
Although many protests and strikes have since died down across the rest of India, regular demonstrations continue in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal state.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the removal of Kolkata's police commissioner and two health department officials after a meeting with doctors on Monday evening.
“We have agreed to remove the director of health services and the director of medical colleges,” Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.
“Vineet Goyal, Kolkata Police Commissioner, will also be removed as demanded by junior doctors.”
He also urged doctors to return to work, saying emergency operations were being affected by the strike.
But Aniket Mahato, spokesman for the West Bengal Young Doctors Front protest group, said they would not stop protesting until investigations into the case were completed.
A man has been arrested for the murder, but the West Bengal state government has faced public criticism for its handling of the investigation.
“We have reached agreement on certain points, but disagreements remain,” Mahato said. AFP.
Thousands of protesters marched through the city streets on Monday, chanting slogans and demanding justice for the victim.
Last month, India's Supreme Court ordered a national task force to examine how to strengthen the safety of health workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The gruesome nature of the attack has drawn comparisons to the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus in 2012.
It became a major political issue and was seen as one of the factors in the subsequent success of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections.
The BJP is the ruling party at the national level, but in West Bengal, the state government is led by the All India Trinamool Congress.
