Contractual health workers protest for job regularisation

Contractual health workers of the state, who have been on a fast-to-the-death protest here since January 24 to demand regularization of jobs, took out a torchlight procession on Tuesday to intensify their agitation against the government.

The protesters marched from the dharna site at Raj Bhavan to Kutchery Chowk and vowed to continue their agitation until their demands were met. Earlier in the day, the agitators announced that they would 'gherao' the official residence of Health Minister Banna Gupta in Doranda on Wednesday to press their demands. They would also stage similar gheraa at the houses of legislators of the ruling coalition JMM, Congress and RJD in the coming days.

Gupta's office announced that he would meet the protesters at the site of their dharna. However, Gupta later backed out and sent his representative. The protesters refused to meet with the representative. "The minister promised that he would meet with us on February 7 at the earliest and then resigned. He promised to come today, but cited his health condition and sent his representative instead. Why would we talk to him? We will only talk to the minister,” Veena Singh, general secretary of Jharkhand Rajya NRHM ANM and GNM Sangh, told.

The protesters are demanding reopening of recruitment of ANMs, laboratory technicians, pharmacists and doctors by the state health department. They claimed that the appointment was last made in 2014. The government then filled 1347 posts in one go.

However, the health ministry claimed that the recruitment was done in 2014 by the Ministry of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha, whose chief minister is Hemant Soren. Meanwhile, seven of the 21 protesters are currently hospitalized. "Several MLAs and ministers have spoken to us in the last fortnight, but they have not taken up the matter with the government," said Vinay Kumar Singh, president of the Jharkhand Union of Contractual Non-Medical Workers.