Junior doctors in West Bengal on Thursday evening decided to partially withdraw their strike and resume essential services, marking a major breakthrough in the 41-day impasse over the brutal rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata last month.We will resume essential services from Saturday. We will also end the sit-in outside Swasthya Bhavan, headquarters of the state health department, on Friday by organising a mega rally,” Aniket Mahata, one of the protesters, told reporters.

The decision came hours after chief secretary Manoj Pant issued a set of 10 directives to ensure the safety, security and efficient functioning of the state health care system on Thursday. These were among the five demands of the junior doctors.But they also said that they will form a standard operating protocol to determine what constitutes essential services, indicating that they would not resume all medical services such as hospital outpatient departments.

“The junior doctors will resume the essential services in the various departments of state-run medical colleges and hospitals. After Friday’s rally, we will return to our respective medical colleges and draw SOPs to resume essential services. The cease work in OPDs will, however, continue,” said Debasish Halder, another junior doctor.The doctors have given a seven-day ultimatum to the government to implement the directives. The Supreme Court is likely to hear the matter next on September 27.

“Even though some directives have been issued, no deadline has been set to implement them. We will wait till September 27 when the case comes up for hearing in the Supreme Court again. If by then, the state fails to implement the directives, we may again start a full-fledged cease work. That time the movement will be more intense as we will take it to every medical college and hospital,” said Halder.

The West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which is spearheading the month-long protests, also decided to open Abhaya Clinics to help the victims in flood-hit areas as a “moral responsibility”. These clinics would start from Friday.