The commercial hub Lal Chowk came to a standstill on Monday when hundreds of employees of National Health Mission (NHM) took out a protest march to press for regularization of their services.
Due to the protest, vehicular movement was disrupted for about an hour along Residency Road. Police swung into action and prevented the protestors from marching ahead. Later the protestors regrouped and assembled at Partap Park under the banner of NHM employees association.
The employees had observed 48-hour strike to press for their demands including formation of proper regularization policy and implementation of equal pay for equal work as per SRO 384. The employees were also protesting against the non implementation of 7th pay benefits on the pattern of their counterparts in other states.
“Last year government sent the proposal of phased regularization to finance department, but nothing has been done despite passing of a year,” said president of the association, Muneer Andrabi.
“We are professionals and we know the sensitivity of our work. We don’t want patients to suffer, but the government has left with no choice but to hit roads”, he said.
The 48-hour strike by joint employees coordination committee of NHM, RNTCP, NACO and other schemes has affected the health services patient care across the state.
Around 8,000 employees are working under centrally sponsored NHM, RNTCP and NACO who have been appointed from 2006 from time to time. The employees said that they will intensify their strike if their demands are not addressed to the earliest.