Chandigarh: PGIMER contractual staff suspend work over mistreatment of three workers

The contractual workers started gathering around 8am and suspended work in the emergency and other centres of the hospital till about 2.30pm

Nearly 700 contractual workers stopped work at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) for several hours on Sunday alleging mistreatment of three workers, who, they claimed, were implicated in a theft case by a junior resident.

PGIMER contractual workers’ union claimed the three workers were falsely implicated in a theft case by a junior resident. The complaint further stated that the cops didn’t question other staff members posted in the night shift and even made casteist remarks against the workers. (HT FILE PHOTO)

The contractual workers started gathering around 8am and suspended work in the emergency and other centres of the hospital till about 2.30pm. They also submitted a complaint against the junior resident of the cardiac centre, a constable and an assistant sub-inspector.

In a complaint to PGIMER director and Chandigarh senior superintendent of police, the contractual workers submitted that on July 24, three workers, including hospital attendant Virender Kumar and two sanitary attendants named Chinki and Rahul, were working at the cardiac centre.

Around 10:30pm, a resident doctor claimed that his mobile phone was missing.

He accused the three workers of theft and called the police who took them to the police post.

“After a while, the doctor got a message that his phone was lying in a table drawer. He might have kept it there and forgotten. The doctor left the police post, but the workers were kept in police custody and beaten up even after the phone was found,” the complaint stated.

It was further stated that the cops didn’t question other staff members posted in the night shift and even made casteist remarks against the workers.

PGI contract workers association president Sanjeev Kumar said, “The three were beaten brutally and are admitted at the trauma centre. We have a meeting with the administration, who have assured us that PGIMER will bear the cost of treatment and give them compensation.”

He said the union wants action against the doctor and two policemen.

Sector 11 station house officer Ranjodh Singh, said, “We have got the medical examination done and are looking into the compliant.”