Months ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat, employees of the state health department’s tuberculosis (TB) control programme on Monday, 19 September, undertook a strike against the state government, demanding permanent employment and a salary hike.
Around 1,100 employees of the TB control programme went on mass Casual Leave (CL) and announced an indefinite strike against the government, urging them to accept their 14-point demand, The Indian Express reported.
The employees submitted their CL applications at their respective offices under the district health departments and civic bodies.
All personnel, including supervisors, senior treatment supervisors, senior TB lab supervisors, lab technicians, data entry operators, TB health visitors, accountants, drug resistance supervisors (DPS), coordinators, medical officers, and contractual workers have gone on strike.
This will put a halt to TB control activities across all 33 districts of the state.
'Govt Had Assured Action Within 3 Weeks, but 5 Months Passed By'
Himanshu Pandya, president of Gujarat Revised National TB Control Programme (GRNTCP), said that the association had held a meeting with the National Health Mission Director of Gujarat on 11 April, during which the latter assured them a resolution of their demands within three weeks.
"We had also met the health minister at that time and they had assured us to look into the demands and resolve our grievances immediately but five months have passed by," Pandya was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
"We have been forced to go on a strike, which we had been deferring for several years, in the larger interest of public health," he added.
As per data from the health department, Gujarat has 110,305 TB patients undergoing treatment across 33 districts in the state as on 19 September.
This strike comes just two days after thousands of state government employees, including schoolteachers, went on a strike demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme (OPS).
On Monday, employees of the state transport department had also gone on strike to demand pending dearness allowances and bonuses from the last three years.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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