Jammu:Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader, Kavinder Gupta reached at the venue of strike where hundreds of NHM employees continued their agitation for 4th consecutive day for mitigating their issues. While addressing the NHM Employees, Gupta reiterated his appeal to the agitating employees to resume their work on humanitarian grounds as the patient care in health institutions is suffering. He said that Government has already taken sympathetic view on their all outstanding issues, including regularization and moving gradually to address these complex issues.
He said he supports the genuine cause of the NHM employees on strike and further said that as per the outcome of meetings of former Health Minister Bali Bhagat with the NHM employees, the Government had constituted a Committee of officers to examine their all issues on merit and the said the Committee, along with other issues, has recommended regularization of employees in a phased manner as it was difficult to regularize more than 8000 employees in one go, who are presently working in NHM and other related schemes in Health & Medical Education Department across the state .
He said since NHM is a purely Government of India scheme and entire funding comes from the Centre he will take up the matter with the Governor Satya Pal Malik to resolve the issues at the earliest. He said BJP supports the cause of the agitating NHM employees across the state and shall also be writing to Union Health Ministry for the implementation of 7th pay commission for NHM employees as has been already done for SSA teachers.
Meanwhile he also met the contractual lecturers who are on chain hunger strike for last 703 days and said that he had met the lecturers earlier also and taken up the matter with then popular government. The matter is still pending for the administrative approvals. He said that it is embracing situation where highly educated contractual lecturers and strike from so many days. He stressed for a policy to be framed for each department where the contractual or casual employees are engaged against the recommended posts. The issue have to be resolved once for all and for the permanent solution is “framing a strong regularisation policy for Contractual, casual and centrally sponsored scheme employees “ which is the necessity of the hour. He said he shall discuss the matter with Governor Satya Pal Malik so that the matter is resolved and the lecturers resume their duties.