The Supreme Court on Tuesday banned civic volunteers from the hospitals, schools and police stations and directed the Bengal Government to submit before it the details of recruitment process of civic volunteers, one of which is the prime accused in the August 9 rape and murder of an on duty lady doctor inside the seminar room of the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
After acquiring a verbal data of the civic volunteers thus applied by the State Government the bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra which has been suo motu hearing the RG Kar case --- associated with its wider implications --- the directed the Government to present through an affidavit the recruitment process of civic volunteers.
"It is a nice process of conferring political patronage on unverified persons," the Supreme Court said seeking affidavit in 3 weeks after hearing that over 1,500 civic volunteers were working under its "Rattirer Sathi" scheme to secure the medical colleges and similar other facilities. The Court wondered whether the prime accused in the RGKMCH case too was a civic volunteer or not.
The Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file additional status report in the next hearing after going through the one filed on Tuesday. The CBI appraised the Court about the chargesheet filed against Sanjoy Roy the prime accused in the Sealdah Court.
Much in line with the Apex Court's order on the deployment of civic volunteers, the Election Commission of India too had shown its distrust for the "blue police" as they often are called in the State banning them from electoral process in the 2024 general elections.
Incidentally the Bengal political opposition too had for long been complaining against the manner in which the civic volunteers are appointed and the way they are used by the Government to man security system, more so in villages and other remote areas.
"These civic volunteers that had been introduced by the Left Front Government as Green Police to assist the traffic police is today used to perpetrate all kinds of crime including electoral rigging in the panchayat elections, extortion similar things," a senior BJP leader said. Meanwhile, the junior doctors once again attacked the State Government for telling lies before the Supreme Court on the implementation of the security infrastructure in medical colleges.
"They told the Court that about than 95% to 98 percent of the planned infrastructure and security upgrades across government hospitals in Bengal have been completed, excluding the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital but it is not true at all … come to our colleges and we will show you what has been done … let alone 95 percent they have not been able to complete 59 percent even … they are all lying," said a junior doctor from Rampurhat Medical College.
