The protesting junior doctors of Kolkata, after two failed attempts at talks with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, have reached her Kalighat residence for a third.
The state government has described this as a “fifth and final invitation for talks”. Unlike the last two times, they have made it past the doorway and talks have started, sources said.
Two earlier meetings — one on Saturday — had fallen though as the two sides could not come to a consensus on whether the proceedings should be live transmitted or videographed, with the video handed to the doctors right after it ends.
In both cases, the doctors had reached the venue but left without sitting down at the proverbial table. On the first occasion, images of the Chief Minister sitting in an empty hall of the state secretariat, waiting for the doctors’ delegation, had gone viral.