Employees’ stir affects Covid vaccination drive

Ahmedgarh, November 20

Continuing their protest for acceptance and implementation of their long-pending demands office-bearers and activists of the National Health Mission Employees Union threatened to intensify their stir if they were not considered under the Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employees Bill 2021 of the state government.

Acknowledging that their protest had derailed the progress of the Covid vaccination programme and sampling for identification of latest coronavirus cases, the protesters argued that the government should also comprehend the gravity of the situation and accept their demands to enable frontline warriors fight against the dreaded disease.

Activists of the union led by Dr Mamta Goyal and Dr Geetanjali Joshi alleged that senior functionaries in the Union Government and the Punjab Government had failed to comprehend the position of officials working under the National Health Mission, who had sacrificed their career while working on meagre salaries and allowances for over two decades.

The protesters claimed that challenges like tuberculosis management, leprosy eradication and reproduction child health were handled by frontline warriors and professionals, exploited by the Union Government under the banner of the Rural Health Mission.

“Now, when we are totally dependent on the mission, the government has adopted an arbitrary and adamant attitude regarding our future prospects,” said Dr Mamta Goyal and Dr Geetanjali Goyal.

Meanwhile, organisers of special vaccination camps alleged that the government’s failure to persuade NHM employees to withdraw their agitation had adversely affected the special campaign launched to achieve hundred per cent target of vaccinating beneficiaries against Covid. — OC