As a scheduled meeting between the protesters and senior state health department officials on the demand for the student council elections on Tuesday was postponed, the impasse between the protesting students and the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital authorities remained.
Currently, seven college students are participating in a hunger strike.
According to sources, the Health Department authorities insisted that no meeting would take place until the students ended their walkout.
Indranil Biswas, the principal of Kolkata Medical College, remarked, “This strike cannot last forever.
One of the protesting students was taken unwell and later confined to the critical care unit (CCU).
On orders from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Minister of State (MoS) for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya visited the medical college on Monday.
On Monday night, Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam reportedly met with the college’s headmaster to assess the situation. According to Nigam, the students refused to end their hunger strike even after the MoS for Health visited them and that a meeting with them could only take place once they ended their strike. On Tuesday at 3 PM, a meeting was set to take place at Swasthya Bhawan.
Protest will not be tolerated on the college’s property, according to the administration.
The college had previously announced the date for the elections for the student council but afterwards changed its mind.
The principal, department heads, superintendents, deputy superintendents, and nursing superintendent were the targets of a roughly 35-hour gherao by the students. The kids have been on a three-day hunger strike.
Chandrima Bhattacharya, the state’s minister of health, informed the students she was directed by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to meet them when she paid a visit to the Calcutta Medical College on Monday. She approached the hunger-striking students and asked them to end their protest. Chandrima also assured the students that the elections for the student council, which was their top priority, will take place shortly.