Nurses refuse to call off stir despite DRME assurance

Tribune News Service

Patiala, February 9

The contractual nurses, who had sitting atop the Government Rajindra Hospital demanding regularisation in their services for the past four days, on Saturday refused to call off their protest even after the Punjab Director Research and Medical Education (DRME) assured them of taking up the matter.

The protesters claimed that they would not call off their protest until the government met their demand and hand over the appointment letters of regular services to them.

The efforts of the hospital staff also turned futile when the protesters did not pay any heed to their requests of ending the stir.

Till Saturday, around nine nurses fell ill while participating in the protest. Five were hospitalised on the first day of the protest following cold wave and heavy rainfall. Earlier, the protesters kept changing their members to sit atop the building, but later the police did not allow them to continue with the practice.

“We are around 800, including nurses, ancillary staff and Class IV employees in Patiala, who fall directly under the DRME and have been sitting on protest against the state government. On Saturday, the DRME asked us to come down, but we turned down the request,” said Manpreet Kaur, a member of the protesting union.

Karamjit Kaur Aulakh, president of the Punjab Contractual Nursing and Ancillary Staff, also got unwell on Saturday but refused to leave the protesting site and said they would continue the protest to get their demand fulfilled.