NHM employees strike enters 22nd day
Srinagar/ Jammu: With no end in sight, the NHM employees across the state are continuing with their strike which has now entered into its 22nd day. On Tuesday, hundreds of NHM employees, including those working under various schemes like RNTCP and JKSACS Tuesday took out a protest rally from Press Club to Bhagat Singh Chowk in Jammu.
NHM employees from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh participated in the rally on Tuesday, while also staging a sit-in protest at Bhagat Singh Chowk. The employees were raising slogans in support of their demands, which include regularization of services, implementation of ‘equal pay for equal work’ orders apart from accord to ‘social security benefits.’
The protests by NHM employees were also held in various parts of Kashmir including District headquarters and Block headquarters. “At this stage of life when we have dedicated 12 years of our service to the department there is no other alternative. We need a secure future as we cannot apply for fresh jobs or think of a career change at this stage”, striking employees said, while appealing Governor SP Malik to fulfill their demands at the earliest.
Spokesperson, J&K NHM Employees Association Abdul Rouf said that so far nothing has come up as the officials are busy with the meeting In Delhi, “the Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education, along with Mission Director, NHM is busy with some meeting in Delhi,” he said.
Rouf added that in few days, they representatives are scheduled to meet the officials, and were hopeful that something will come up, “in few days, we are meeting the officials, let’s see if anything comes up after that,” he said.
Later, the representatives of the coordination committee of NHM, RNTCP, JKSACS employees on the call of the authorities met Deputy Secretary to Government, Abdul Sattar at Civil Secretariat, Jammu and apprised him of their demands in detail.
Meanwhile, intensifying their protest, all the NHM employees under the banner of All NHM Union KargilLadakh gathered at InqilabManzil (Qatilgha-e-Hussaini) Kargil despite of -15 C of temperature, to press for their long pending demands. The employees have decided to intensify the strike in future if the demands are not fulfilled.
KV News
