Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 30: Hundreds of contractual employees of the National Health Mission (NHM) today held massive protest in front of entry gate of Government Medical College (GMC), Jammu against their termination and also blocked the vehicular traffic, forcing the police to use force to remove the blockade and clear the traffic.
Around 1000 NHM contractual employees participated in the protest and press for continuance of their services. They raised anti-Government slogans and blocked the road for hours together to press for their demands. As the blockade caused heavy traffic jam on the busy Mahespura Chowk, a contingent of police force reached the spot and tried to remove the blockade peacefully but when all their pleas went unheard by the protesting employees, they used force and baton charged the protesters.
The protesting employees also clashed with the police. Some of the protesters were also detained by the police but discharged later. The protesters alleged that the Government was exercising a “use and throw” policy with NHM employees. “The Government is exercising a ‘use and throw’ policy with us and we condemn it,” Sunita Devi, one of the leaders of the protesting employees said while interacting with the reporters on protest site.
She said they had joined service at GMC Jammu at the peak of the first wave of COVID-19 last year when no one wanted to come out of their homes. “We were promised that if we served in the best way during the COVID period, we will be regularized in the services. But instead of regularization, they threw us out after using us during the worst COVID period,” Sunita said.
The protesting employees were demanding extension of their services. They said that Government is yet to pay their honorariums of few months but despite that we were giving our services with full dedication. “We want to serve the people but Government seems least interested in providing satisfactory health services to the public,” they said and appealed the LT Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene and pass directions to the concerned higher officers to issue extension order of their services.
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