Ludhiana: NHM workers demand regularisation, hike in salaries

Employees of National Health Mission (NHM), Punjab, staged a protest at the Ludhiana civil surgeon’s office on Thursday demanding regularisation of jobs and hike in salaries

Employees of National Health Mission (NHM), Punjab, staged a protest at the civil surgeon’s office on Thursday demanding regularisation of jobs and hike in salaries.

NHM employees protesting at the Civil Surgeon’s Office in Ludhiana on Thursday. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)

The employees had on November 25.announced an indefinite protest at the civil Surgeon’s office and participated in a state-level protest rally in Kharar on Tuesday. However, their demands are yet to be fulfilled. The protesters include community health officers, doctors, nurses and other clerical staff.

District account officer Dinesh Kumar said that 300 employees of NHM, Ludhiana, and 12,000 from across the state are on indefinite strike. He added that the state government had recently introduced the Punjab Protection and Regularisation of Contractual Employee Bill 2021, but NHM employees have been kept out of the list.

“Despite performing our duties even amid the Covid crisis, our rights are always denied,” said Kumar.