Kolkata, Oct 20 (IANS): Amid looming uncertainty over a meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on October 21, the fast-unto-death agitation by a section of junior doctors to protest the gruesome rape and murder of their colleague at R. G. Kar Medical College & Hospital entered the 16th day on Sunday.

Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Saturday evening sent an email to the West Bengal Junior Doctors' Front (WBJDF), the umbrella body spearheading the movement, setting withdrawal of the hunger strike as a precondition for the meeting with the Chief Minister.

In the email, he also made it clear that the delegation of junior doctors coming for the meeting should not be more than 10 members.

Pant said 45 minutes would be provided to the doctors for meeting with the chief minister.

The email from the Chief Secretary surprised the protesting junior doctors since this condition on "withdrawal of hunger strike" was not set during their phone conversation with the Chief Minister earlier on Saturday afternoon.

The WBJDF has yet to decide on this email from the Chief Secretary, and they will announce that after holding a meeting among themselves late in the day.

However, WBJDF representative Ashfaqullah Naiya said that the withdrawal of the hunger strike cannot be a pre-condition for the meeting.

"The hunger strike was being held seeking fulfilment of demands and not just the meeting. However, the final decision can be conveyed only after our meeting," he added.

To recall, earlier on Friday night, the protesting junior doctors cautioned the state government that they would be compelled to once again return to total cease-work from Tuesday unless their demands in the matter are fulfilled by Monday.

In such a situation all eyes were on the crucial meeting on October 21.

To date, eight junior doctors are still on hunger strike, seven of whom are at Esplanade in Central Kolkata and one within the campus of North Bengal Medical College & Hospital (NBMCH) at Siliguri in Darjeeling district.