No salaries for 2 yrs: Protest by Ayush paramedical staff in AP enters 250th day

As many as 120 employees of Ayush NRHM Paramedical Employees Association sat on relay fast at Dharna Chowk in Vijayawada on Tuesday.
No salaries for 2 yrs: Protest by Ayush paramedical staff in AP enters 250th day
No salaries for 2 yrs: Protest by Ayush paramedical staff in AP enters 250th day
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As many as 120 employees of Ayush NRHM (National Rural Health Mission)  Paramedical Employees Association, completed 250 days of their relay fast at Dharna Chowk in Vijayawada on Tuesday. They are protesting as part of ‘Dharma Porata Deeksha’ over non-payment of salaries. 

AYUSH Paramedical contract employees claim that they haven’t been paid salaries for the last 23 months, and that there are no doctors in the dispensaries.

The Andhra government started as many as 982 AYUSH dispensaries across the state and recruited staff on contract basis. It mandated that each dispensary will have three positions: one doctor, one nursing staff orderly (NSO) and compounder. In 2011, the government regularised doctors who were recruited along with paramedical staff on contract basis. 

 

For the past 23 months, paramedical staff have not been getting salaries or continuation orders. A Polemma, paramedical staff at Ibrahim Patnam dispensary in Krishna district said, "They've not given us salaries for the past 23 months, saying they don't have the budget. How can we survive for two years?"

Almost 850 employees who are working in different dispensaries across the state have been worst affected. While a compounder gets Rs 9200, an NSO gets Rs 6200 per month.

Srinivas Rao, a compounder who came from Visakhapatnam to participate in the protest said, "When we ask them, they say that when there are no doctors at all, what is the need for paramedical staff. We demand immediate recruitment of doctors and regularisation of our jobs.”

Koteshwar Rao, Jana Sena Legal Cell leader, who visited the protest site and expressed solidarity with the paramedical staff, alleged that the government would have solved their problem if it was ready to utilise half the money that it has spent on TDP's own “Dharma Porata Deeksha”.

TDP has organised its own “Dharma Porata Deeksha” to protest against the BJP-led Centre’s policies towards the state. 

 

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