Health workers protest in pursuit of regular jobs

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 29

Members of the Contractual Multipurpose Health Workers’ Association on Thursday staged a protest in front of the Civil Hospital demanding the regularisation of jobs and other pending demands. The protesting health workers raised slogans against the state government and the Health Department for the non-fulfilment of demands.

The protesting workers alleged that they had been putting forward their demands for a long time, but the state government had failed to fulfil their demands. They added that rather the government was trying to suppress their voice through different means. They threatened to boycott all schemes and policies of the Union Government if the authorities concerned did not fulfil their demands.

Ranjit Kaur, president of the association, said, “A number of health workers have been rendering their services for the past more than 10-12 years. It has been quite a long time working on a contract basis. Despite discharging duties diligently for so many years, the government did not bother about regularising our jobs. Leave aside regularisation, we were even forced to work on meagre salaries without any increase or incentives. We demand the implementation of the ‘equal work, equal pay’ principle.”

“The authorities concerned have stalled the regularisation process citing one reason or the other. It is high time they realised that we are not going to support any new policy or scheme of the government. We will even boycott work if our genuine demands are not met on an immediate basis,” she added.

“There are more than 2,000 posts of health workers lying vacant in the state and a majority of the workers who were given jobs on contract in 2006 were never regularised. There are the Central Government’s funds for multipurpose health workers, but the state government has failed to provide the same. On September 4, a meeting with the state Health Minister has been scheduled,” added Kaur.