In what is being viewed as an "election year bid" to assuage the ruffled feelings of the agitating doctors demanding justice for the rape and murder victim of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday affected an impressive salary hike of the senior and junior doctors.

Banerjee who was speaking at a meeting of doctors organized by the State Government announced a three-tier pay hike for of Rs 25,000 for senior doctors, Rs 15,000 for junior doctors and Rs 10,000 for the post-graduate trainees.

This apart, Banerjee also allowed some other concessions to the practicing Government doctors.

"Only request the doctors fraternity to be more sincere towards their duty … I do not mind private practice but I request the doctors to carry on private practice after eight hours of hospital duty … If there is a problem with dividing your time between your private patients and hospital duty you may bring your patients to the hospitals which have an excellent set up," Banerjee said expanding the area of private practice for the doctors from present 20 km to 30 km area from their place of work i.e. the hospitals.

She also said that during her government the Health services had been improved. "During the Left regime the Health Department was given to a State minister … and as a result the health services were in shambles … whereas I kept it with me and did all I could do to improve the health infrastructure."

Reacting to her Monday's speech senior doctor Utpal Bandopadhyay said increasing a few thousand of rupees was not the doctors h ad been asking for. "We were not asking for a few thousand rupees … the main issue is whether the questions being raised by the doctors have been addressed or not … We say these have not been addressed … still there is vast shortage of doctors … still the junior doctors have no facility and still they are being attacked inside the hospitals," he said.

Senior Congress leader Adhir Chowdhury said that "the Chief Minister did not take the Health Minister in her own hands because she knew that it was a profitable place … today this ministry is a symbol of corruption and everyone knows where this money goes ... she has only painted the State blue and white and nothing more." On the pay hike given to the doctors he said it was one way of bribing doctors' fraternity "as she had been doing by announcing dole schemes for the people to win votes."

The majority of doctor's community in the State had been up in arms against the State Government complaining against lack of manpower, facility, safety and security --- particularly for the women doctors. They had been protesting on the streets demanding fair treatment after the RG Kar incident.

A postgraduate lady doctor working with the Chest Medicine Department of the Hospital was in the small hours of August 9 last year brutally raped and murdered while she was resting inside the seminar hall after a 48 hours' continuous duty.

This led to worldwide condemnation even as the doctors condemned the Government, particularly the police department for lackadaisical investigation. Though the High Court transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation only one accused named Sanjoy Roy could be arrested for the crime while three others including former Principal of the College Sandip Ghosh a junior police officer and a house staff were arrested on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty.

While Roy was awarded life imprisonment by the district court which found wide lacunae in the investigation, the doctors and the parents of the victim continued to demand impartial

investigation and accused the Government of hiding the real masterminds behind the case.