SUHAIL RATHER
Bandipora, 21 Jan: Scores of National Health Mission (NHM) employees staged a protest demonstration and went on a day-long strike in north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Monday demanding regularization of their services.
The protesting employees under the banner of All J&K NHM Employees Association marched from district hospital Bandipora to the office of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) amid anti-government sloganeering.
Protesting employees shouted slogans against the state government and demanded their services be regularized.
The employees are demanding regularisation of their services apart from immediate fullfillment of the commitment made to them by then health Minister in January 2018.
Employees said that government had promised us certain social security benefits last year but till date nothing has moved, we have no option to hit roads, said Mir Aijaz Ahmad district president Bandipora.
We want regularisation of our services as our performance has remained excellent. "The J&K NHM Employees Association had decided to hold protest rallies across the state today to press for our genuine demands pending from past more than six years.
The protesting employees threatened of going on an indefinite strike if their demands were not fulfilled at the earliest.
The strike has badly affected the healthcare in Bandipora as the SDH hospital is solely dependent on NHM employees due to dearth of regular staff in the hospital.
Apart from formation of regularization policy, the employees were demanding immediate implementation of Supreme Court directions of equal pay for equal work on the analogy of SRO-384,benefit of 7th Pay Commission on Haryana pattern, full leave package, removal of pay disparity, full medical cover and according to of EPF benefits for pending employees.
They warned the government of severe agitation if their demands were not met.They later marched towards the office of the Deputy Commissioner Bandipora from SDH Bandipora and submitted a memorandum.
