Healthcare services across Punjab are expected to take a hit as National Health Mission (NHM) workers have announced an indefinite strike from Wednesday over their long-pending demands.
The strike entails medical officers, staff nurses, community health officers (CHOs), auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and laboratory technicians working at government health facilities.
Employees serving at district and subdivisional hospitals, community health centres (CHCs), primary health centres (PHCs) and Ayushman Arogya Kendras are also participating in the protest.
As part of the protest, employees from across Punjab will hold a state-level protest outside the NHM headquarters in Sector 38, Chandigarh, on Wednesday.
The workers are demanding a permanent service policy, regularisation of long-serving staff, a salary hike and implementation of the principle of equal pay for equal work, besides resolution of other service related issues.
Dr Sunil Targotra, a senior leader representing the NHM staff, said, "We had made 54 attempts to resolve our grievances through meetings with the government, protests, sit-ins and memorandums. However, our demands remained unaddressed."
He further alleged that the administration had not convened even a single meeting of the welfare panel constituted to look into their demands.
Union leaders remarked the administration had pledged to regularise their services before coming to power. Yet, nearly four-and-a-half years later, the promise remained unfulfilled and employees had not received any salary hike.
The union has demanded a prompt meeting with senior administration officials and a time-bound written commitment on resolving its demands. It cautioned that the protest would be intensified if the administration could not act.
